VERSE-SATIRE  IN  ENGLAND  BEFORE 
THE  RENAISSANCE 


VERSE-SATIRE  IN  ENGLAND  BEFORE 
THE  RENAISSANCE 


BY 

SAMUEL   MARION  JTTJCKER 


SUBMITTED  IN  PARTIAL  FULFILMENT  OF  THE  REQUIREMENTS  FOR 

THE  DEGREE  OF  DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY,  IN  THE  FACULTY 

OF  PHILOSOPHY,  COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY 


OF   THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


NEW  YORK 
1908 


Copyright,    1908 
BY  THE  COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

Printed  from  type  November,  1908 


PRESS  OF 

THE  NEW  ERA  PRINTING  COMPANY 
LANCASTER.  PA. 


This  Monograph  has  been  approved  by  the  Department  of  Eng- 
lish in  Columbia  University  as  a  contribution  to  knowledge  worthy 

of  publication. 

A.   H.  THORNDIKE, 

Secretary. 


193315 


TO   MY   MOTHER 


vii 


PREFACE 

This  essay  is  concerned  with  the  historical  study  of  literature 
and  the  evolution  of  literary  types.  For  such  a  study  the  com- 
parative method  forms  the  only  sure  guide.  This  point  of  view 
has  made  necessary  the  general  treatment  here  followed :  a 
survey  of  satirical  literature  in  several  languages,  with  an 
attempt  to  trace  the  influence  of  foreign  satire  upon  the  Eng- 
lish. So  wide  a  survey  is  open  to  criticism  on  many  grounds, 
but  it  is  hoped  that  the  material  here  brought  together  and  the 
conclusions  here  reached  may  prove  not  without  value  for 
future  investigations. 

The  difficulties  under  which  the  work  has  been  done  have 
been  considerable.  There  are  no  satisfactory  terminology 
or  criteria  that  might  serve  as  a  basis  for  the  treatment  of  the 
Satire  as  a  genre.  Such  terminology  and  criteria  Chapter  I 
of  this  book  attempts  to  establish.  Again,  the  very  subject- 
matter  with  which  the  author  has  had  to  deal  was  found  chaotic 
and  widely  distributed,  some  of  it  hardly  accessible.  An 
effort  has  been  made  to  render  this  confused  mass  in  some 
degree  more  coherent  and  significant. 

The  amount  of  critical  work  on  the  Satire  and  on  satirical 
literature  in  general,  in  the  shape  of  books,  essays,  magazine 
articles,  etc.,  is  enormous.  Yet,  either  through  their  merely 
popular  character,  their  restricted  point  of  view,  or  their  desul- 
tory method,  the  vast  majority  of  these  studies  was  found  un- 
suited  to  the  purpose  of  the  present  work.  Furthermore,  no 
treatment  of  the  evolution  of  the  Satire  as  a  genre  in  English 
has  yet  been  attempted.  Professor  Alden's  book,  to  which  I 
gladly  acknowledge  my  indebtedness,  is  an  able  and  scholarly 
treatment  of  one  period — that  of  the  Elizabethan  Satire.  The 
present  study  in  some  measure  leads  up  to  Professor  Alden's 
work,  since  it  essays  to  trace  the  development  of  satirical 
verse  in  England  from  its  beginnings  down  to  the  close  of  its 
first  period,  in  1540. 

Since  this  essay  is  in  truth  merely  an  introduction  to  the 
study  and  history  of  the  English  Satire,  its  first  chapter,  giving 


the  theory  of  the  Satire,  may  seem  disproportionately  long. 
This  chapter  was  indeed  planned  to  serve  as  an  introduction  to 
the  study  of  the  English  Satire  as  a  whole  down  to  the  time  of 
Byron.  It  has  been  allowed  to  remain  as  originally  written, 
in  the  hope  that  it  may  prove  suggestive  to  other  students. 

The  historical  point  of  view  has  been  maintained  throughout 
this  essay.  Only  in  its  relation  to  life  can  the  greater  part  of 
such  matter  as  is  here  treated  be  of  any  significance  or  value. 
If  we  accept  the  work  of  Chaucer,  of  the  author  of  Piers 
Plowman,  and  some  of  the  best  work  of  the  Renaissance 
satirists  in  England,  we  must  confess  that  very  little  satire  of 
any  great  literary  value  was  produced  in  England  before  the 
Age  of  Elizabeth.  Hence  such  a  product  becomes  of  account 
only  in  its  relation  to  contemporary  life,  in  the  illustrations  it 
gives  of  English  history  in  the  broader  sense,  and,  from  the 
evolutionary  standpoint,  in  its  gradual  development  into  some- 
thing higher. 

I  am  under  obligations  to  the  authorities  of  the  Library  of 
Columbia  University  for  many  courtesies  through  years  of 
study.  To  Professor  W.  A.  Neilson,  of  Harvard  University, 
Professor  G.  P.  Krapp,  of  the  University  of  Cincinnati,  Pro- 
fessor Brander  Matthews  and  Professor  J.  B.  Fletcher,  of 
Columbia  University,  I  am  indebted  for  many  excellent  sug- 
gestions. My  friends,  Miss  M.  P.  Conant,  Professor  of  Eng- 
lish Literature  at  the  Woman's  College,  Frederick,  Md.,  and 
Mr.  S.  L.  Wolff,  of  New  York  City,  gave  me  the  benefit  of 
their  advice  in  regard  to  the  style  of  this  book ;  my  friend  and 
colleague,  Dr.  B.  C.  Bondurant,  Professor  of  Classics  at  The 
Florida  State  College  for  Women,  revised  my  treatment  of  the 
Classical  Satire.  To  Professor  A.  H.  Thorndike  and  Pro- 
fessor W.  W.  Lawrence,  of  Columbia  University,  I  am  im- 
mensely indebted  for  help  in  matter,  method,  and  style. 

Above  all,  my  grateful  acknowledgment  is  due  my  friend  and 
former  teacher,  Professor  W.  P.  Trent,  of  Columbia  University, 
at  whose  suggestion  this  study  was  undertaken,  and  without 
whose  kind  and  continual  assistance  and  encouragement  it 
could  never  have  reached  a  conclusion. 

TALLAHASSEE,  FLA., 
January  19,  1909. 


-jf^ 

OF   THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


CHAPTER   I 
INTRODUCTORY 

Great  English  satirists. — Difficulty  of  tracing  the  development  of  the 
English  Satire. — Triple  meaning  of  the  word  "  satire." — The  term  "  satiri- 
cal poetry." — Varieties  and  schools. — Five  epochs  in«the  history  of  satirical 
poetry  in  England. — Foreign  influences. — Terminology  and  criteria. — Nature 
and  working  of  the  satirical  spirit. — Catalogue  of  satirical  genres. — Ele- 
ments of  the  satirical  spirit. — Stimuli  of  the  satirical  spirit. — Instruments 
of  the  satirical  spirit. — Satire  in  prose  and  in  verse. — Distinction  between 
the  two  forms. — Why  satire  is  not  poetic. — The  two  chief  methods  of  the 
Satire. — The  classical  Latin  Satire. — The  Epigram. — Relation  of  the  Epi- 
gram to  the  Satire. — The  nature  of  burlesque. — Parody  and  travesty. — The 
Mock-Heroic  poem ;  its  varieties. — The  satirical  Mock- Epic ;  its  relation  to 
the  Satire. — Greek  burlesque. — Roman  burlesque. — Medieval  burlesque. — 
The  Beast-Epic. — The  Roman  de  Renart. — The  Beast-Fable. — The  satiric 
Allegory. — Difference  between  the  Satire  and  all  other  genres. — Four  varie- 
ties of  the  Satire. — The  Personal  Satire. — The  Political  Satire. — The  Moral 
and  Social  Satire. — The  Literary  Satire ;  "  Parnassian  "  poems. — Summary. 

The  story  of  verse-satire  in  England  is  long,  for  it  begins 
with  the  twelfth  century  and  has  not  yet  ended.  It  is  also  a 
varied  story,  for  not  only  does  it  cover  the  rise,  decline,  and 
fall  of  many  a  minor  satirical  genre,  but  centers  as  well  about 
the  names  of  great  satirists  who  have  differed  widely  in  form, 
in  subject-matter,  and  in  spirit.  Walter  Map  (or  whoever 
may  have  been  that  "  Bishop  Golias  "  of  evanescent  person- 
ality), Langland  (or  whoever  may  have  been  the  author  of 
Piers  Plowman),  Chaucer,  Skelton,  and  Lyndsay;  Wyatt, 
Hall,  and  Donne ;  Cleveland  and  Butler ;  Dryden,  Pope,  Swift, 
Young,  and  Churchill;  Cowper,  Canning,  Gifford,  and  Byron 
— such  are  some  of  the  great  names  that  serve  to  mark  the 
rise  and  progress  of  English  satirical  verse. 

Thus,  for  over  seven  centuries,  the  stream  of  English  satire 
has  been  flowing  with  a  varied  course,  time  and  time  again 
deflected  by  cross  currents  from  abroad.  For  these  reasons 
and  others  that  will  appear  hereafter,  it  is  perhaps  more  diffi- 
cult to  trace  the  history  of  the  Satire  than  that  of  any  other 
2  1 


poetical  genre.  The  Ode,  the  Elegy,  the  Lyric,  are  far  more 
limited  in  scope  and  more  clearly  defined.  If  it  be  admitted 
that  the  verse- Satire  reached  its  full  development  in  the  work 
of  Dryden,  then,  in  order  to  understand  this  consummate  prod- 
uct, we  must  go  far  back  to  the  very  beginning.  Up  to  the 
Elizabethan  era,  at  least,  we  shall  find  it  necessary  to  disregard 
any  strict  definition  of  the  Satire,  and  take  into  consideration 
verse  that  is  not  only  largely  informal,  but  even  deficient  in 
satirical  quality.  Furthermore,  we  shall  constantly  trespass 
on  the  domains  of  other  genres,  such  as  the  didactic  poem  and 
the  ballad.  And  all  of  this  we  shall  find  written  in  three  lan- 
guages, Latin,  English  and  Anglo-French,  each  of  which 
might  be  termed  a  vernacular.  While  very  little  of  this  con- 
siderable medieval  product  conforms  to  any  strict  definition  of 
the  Satire,  it  is  still  significant  as  exhibiting  tendencies  that 
finally  resulted  in  a  perfect  form,  and  that  therefore  deserve 
our  attention,  despite  the  difficulty  of  giving  them  consistent 
treatment. 

Again,  it  is  not  easy  to  see  that  the  genre  underwent  any 
well-marked  evolution.  The  term  "  evolution  "  has  now  be- 
come popular,  and  is  too  often  loosely  applied.  Strictly  speak- 
ing, it  would  scarcely  be  demonstrable  to  say  that  the  English 
Satire  is  a  product  of  distinct  evolution.  Still,  it  must  be 
apparent  to  any  student  that  this  genre  has  indeed  been  the 
result  of  a  long  process  of  growth.  Its  three  different  ele- 
ments, Form,  Subject-matter,  and  Tone,  have  by  degrees 
gained  in  richness  and  scope  as  the  nation  has  developed.  The 
form  has  gradually  grown  more  artistic  and  individual;  the 
subject-matter  has  become  more  comprehensive;  the  tone  has 
learned  to  run  the  gamut  from  grave  to  gay,  has  grown  more 
expressive  of  the  individual  writer,  and  has  gained  a  larger 
sense  of  the  ludicrous. 

Furthermore,  any  study  of  satirical  poetry  in  England  is  at 
the  very  outset  rendered  difficult  by  a  confusion  of  terms.  A 
source  of  this  confusion  lies  in  the  really  triple  meaning  of  the 
word  satire.  As  given  in  the  dictionary,  satire,  in  one  sense, 
is  an  abstract  term  cognate  with  ridicule;  as  when  we  say, 
"  Satire  has  accomplished  revolutions."  A  second  meaning 


3 

refers  to  a  literary  form  that  has  for  its  object  destructive 
criticism,  as  when  we  say,  "  Butler's  Hudibras  is  a  Satire  on 
the  Puritans." 

There  is  in  this  double  meaning  no  confusion  too  great  to 
be  simplified  by  the  mere  use  of  a  capital  letter  when  the  word 
"  satire "  is  used  to  denote  a  literary  form.  But,  unfortu- 
nately, a  double  meaning  lurks  in  the  first  and  more  abstract 
signification  of  the  word  as  given  in  the  dictionary.  Here 
two  things  are  confused:  the  satirical  spirit,  an  intangible, 
abstract  something  that  underlies  and  inspires  what  we  com- 
monly call  satire — or  ridicule — or  invective;  and  satire  itself .^ 
which  is  merely  the  concrete  manifestation  of  the  satiric  spirit 
in  literature.  This  distinction  may  seem  fanciful;  certainly  it 
can  be  justified  and  made  clear  only  through  discussion  and 
illustration.  But  let  it  be  borne  in  mind  that  throughout  the 
following  account  of  the  nature  of  satirical  verse  in  general 
and  the  history  of  the  English  product  in  particular,  the  term  , 
satirical  spirit  always  refers  to  a  point  of  view ;  the  word  satire 
to  a  concrete  but  general  embodiment  of  that  point  of  view  in 
literature;  and  Satire  (capitalized)  to  the  literary  form  or 
genre,  as  well  as  to  any  particular  example  of  that  genre. 
Thus,  we  may  say,  "  The  satirical  spirit  is  unenthusiastic  " ; 
"  Butler's  satire  is  directed  largely  against  the  Puritans " ; 
"  Butler  made  an  important  contribution  to  the  Satire " ; 
"  Butler's  Hudibras  is  a  Satire  in  the  burlesque  method.3 
From  the  double  use  of  the  capitalized  form  there  should  arise 
no  ambiguity,  the  meaning  being  apparent  from  the  context. 
In  this  perhaps  inadequate  way  we  shall  at  least  have  taken  a 
step  toward  a  clearer  and  more  definite  terminology. 

The  confusion,  however,  is  not  merely  verbal.  English 
satirical  poetry  is  not  one  genre  alone,  but  is  an  inclusive  term 
covering  a  number  of  genres  more  or  less  clearly  defined.  To 
be  sure,  the  English  Satire  par  excellence  is  indeed  a  distinct 
genre,  with  a  form  and  traditions  of  its  very  own.  Though 
this  genre  is  in  origin  that  of  the  classical  Latin  Satire,  yet  its 
growth  and  development  in  England  from  its  first  beginnings 
in  the  Satires  of  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt  in  1540  to  the  Satires, 
say,  of  Gilford  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  have 


; 


been  so  definite  as  to  justify  the  proposition  that  this  particular 
form  of  English  satirical  poetry  has  been  actually  evolved. 

But  aside  from  this,  its  most  significant  and  clearly-defined 
variety,  satirical  verse  in  England  includes  several  other  varie- 
ties and  schools.  The  Goliardic  Latin  satire  of  the  twelfth 
and  thirteenth  centuries ;  the  troubadour1  and  trouvere  product 
of  the  same  period  (the  sirvente)  ;  the  satiric  Eclogue  of  Bar- 
clay, Googe,  Spenser,  and  Gay;  the  Elizabethan  and  Augustan 
Epigram ;  the  satiric  Fable  of  Gay  and  of  Prior ;  the  satirical 
Mock-Heroic — all  these  are  varieties  in  themselves — and  all 
are  satirical.  Beyond  these,  we  find  schools  of  satiric  verse: 
the  Anglo-Latin  Satires  of  the  twelfth  century — the  work 
of  Wireker  and  his  contemporaries;  the  Songs  against  the 
French  and  Scotch  by  English  gleemen  through  the  reigns  of 
the  first  three  Edwards;  the  Lollard  Satire  in  Latin  and  in 
English,  pro  and  con,  of  the  early  fifteenth  century;  the  alle- 
gorical Satire,  from  the  Speculum  Stultorum  to  the  Satyr e  of 
the  Thrie  Estaitis',  the  Satire  on  Woman;  the  peculiar  polit- 
ico-satirical ballads  of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries, 
in  which  noblemen  are  referred  to  by  their  cognizances;  the 
Satire  of  the  Reformation ;  the  productions  of  Skeltoji_jmd_the 
Skeltonic  schooj.;  the  "  Fool  Satire  "  from  Wireker  to  Skel- 
ton;  the  "jjatire  on  Rogues,"  of  the  early  sixteenth  century; 
the  satirical  ballads  of  the  Civil  War  and  Protectorate;  the 
work  of  Cleveland  and  his  imitators ;  the  Satires  of  the  Hudi- 
brastic  school ;  and  the  "  Parnassian  Satires  "  of  the  seven- 
teenth, eighteenth,  and  nineteenth  centuries — from  Suckling  to 
Lowell. 

The  rise  and  progress  of  verse-satire  in  England,  in 
all  these  and  other  kinds,  from  1200  to  1800,  from  Walter 
Map  to  Byron,  is  roughly  divisible  into  five  great  epochs. 
The  first  period  of  development  begins  with  Goliardic  satire 
and  satire  in  Anglo-French,  and  ends  with  the  consummation  of 
medieval  satire  in  the  work  of  Lyndsay,  1540.  With  the  birth 
of  the  formal  genre,  in  the  classical  Satires  of  Sir  Thomas 
Wyatt,  begins  a  second  epoch  that  ends  with  the  decadence  of 

1  The  troubadour  sirvente  was  connected  with  the  English  dominion  in 
France ;  see  infra,  p.  48  f . 


this  classical  Satire  about  1628.  The  satire  of  the  Civil  War 
and  Protectorate,  of  Cleveland  and  Butler,  marks  the  third 
period.  A  fourth  begins  with  the  revival  of  the  Classical 
Satire  by  Dryden  and  ends  with  its  decline  in  Gifford.  Out 
of  this  fourth  epoch  grows  a  fifth,  which  begins  with  the  satire 
of  the  Anti-Jacobin,  and  culminates  in  the  masterly  work  of 
Byron,  perhaps  the  greatest  of  English  verse-satirists. 

Foreign  influences,  emanating  chiefly  from  France  and 
Italy,  have  again  and  again  through  its  history  affected  Eng- 
lish satirical  verse.  The  Goliardic  poetry  was  probably  a 
French  importation;  the  sirvente  was  French  and  Norman; 
Anglo-Latin  satire  was  perceptibly  affected  by  the  classics. 
The  Roman  de  la  Rose  certainly  exercised  an  influence  upon 
Langland  and  Chaucer;  while  the  latter  was  clearly  indebted 
to  the  method  of  the  fabliau  for  some  of  his  best  satirical  work. 
Wyatt  drew  from  the  Italians;  the  Elizabethan  formal  satir- 
ists, from  both  the  Italians  and  the  classics.  Butler  gained  at 
least  his  framework  from  Don  Quixote;  the  great  satirists  of 
the  Restoration  and  Georgian  eras  were  profoundly  influenced, 
first  by  Boileau,  later  by  La  Fontaine.  Gifford  fancied  him- 
self a  follower  of  Juvenal;  while  Byron  was  not  without  his 
debt  to  the  Italians. 

To  the  history  of  the  English  Satire,  the  present  volume  can 
be  regarded  only  as  introductory.  For  the  form  does  not  take 
shape  until  1 540 ;  and  we  can  here  concern  ourselves  only  with 
the  largely  formless  medieval  product  that  found  its  close  and 
consummation  in  the  work  of  Barclay,  of  Skelton,  and  of  Sir 
David  Lyndsay. 

Our  purpose  being  to  treat  satirical  poetry  as  distinct  from 
all  other  poetical  forms,  we  must  establish  a  certain  terminol-  ! 
ogy  and  certain  canons  of  criticism  whereby  to  determine  what 
shall  and  what  shall  not  be  included  in  our  treatment.  It  is 
possible,  first,  to  differentiate  satirical  poetry  from  all  other 
forms  through  the  fact  that  it  is  destructive^  in  its  criticism, 
while  all  other  forms  are  constructive.  This  peculiar  and 
individual  tone  sets  satirical  poetry  apart. 

But  this  individual  tone  is  not  alone  characteristic  of  satire 


in  verse;  it  is  shared  by  a  great  mass  of  satire  in  prose.  We 
have,  then,  at  the  outset,  four  important  things  to  do ;  first,  to 
ascertain  the  nature,  the  stimuli,  and  the  working  and  mode 
of  manifestation  of  the  spirit  that  gives  to  this  body  of  prose 
and  verse  what  is  called  its  "  satirical  tone  " ;  second,  to  dis- 
tinguish between  prose  and  verse  satire ;  third,  to  describe  and 
illustrate  the  two  great  methods  of  the  Satire,  and  to  show  the 
relation  of  the  formal  verse-Satire  to  certain  kindred  and  also 
to  certain  subordinate  genres ;  finally,  to  differentiate  between 
the  Satire  and  all  other  genres  of  poetry,  and  to  describe  its 
different  varieties. 

I 

In  the  first  attempt — to  ascertain  the  nature  and  the  work- 
ing of  the  satirical  spirit — there  would  be  less  difficulty  were 
satirical  literature  in  itself  homogeneous.  But  apparently  its 
range  of  tone  is  quite  commensurate  with  its  enormous  extent. 
What,  then,  may  be  the  essence  of  the  informing  spirit  that 
can  stamp  as  satire  each  distinct  production  in  this  great  body 
of  prose  and  verse?  Surely,  if  the  product  itself  is  so  diverse, 
the  spirit  animating  it  must  be  complex  and  multiform. 

Yet  this  spirit  must  also  possess  certain  constant  elements, 
however  variable  its  incidental  characteristics.  It  is  possible, 
indeed,  to  obtain  some  knowledge  of  the  nature  of  this  satirical 
spirit,  but  only  after  forming  a  general  idea  of  what  may  be 
included  under  the  head  of  satirical  literature.  Then  it  at 
once  becomes  evident  that,  whatever  its  minor  characteristics, 
this  spirit  is  eternal  and  perennial,  and  has  constantly  found 
expression  in  European  literature  since  the  days  of  Homer. 
In  order  to  indicate  in  a  general  way  the  field  covered  by  this 
satirical  product,  it  may  be  well,  even  at  the  risk  of  stating 
commonplaces,  to  make  a  diagram  of  the  various  forms  that 
the  satirical  spirit  assumes,  giving  for  each  form,  as  far  as 
possible,  at  least  one  great  typical  example.  The  catalogue, 
though  far  from  exhaustive,  may  still  serve  for  illustration. 

It  is  easy  to  see  the  kinship  between  Aristophanes,  Lucian, 
Ulrich  von  Hutten,  and  Rabelais;  but  it  is  a  far  cry  from 
Horace,  Erasmus  and  Addison,  through  Dryden,  Pope  and 
Boileau,  to  Juvenal,  Swift  and  Churchill.  Yet  all  these,  ac- 


N\ 

T!rt£ 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


PROSE 


Direct 
method. 


VERSE 


cording  to   the   universal   verdict   of   criticism,   are   satirists. 

"  The  formal   (professed)    prose   Satire :    The  Praise  of  Folly,  by 

Erasmus. 

The  Dialogue :  The  Dialogues  of  Lucian,  of  Ulrich  von  Hutten. 
The  Play :  The  satiric  prose  comedies  of  Moliere. 
The  Novel :  Gulliver's  Travels,  by  Swift. 
The  Tale:  Candide,  by  Voltaire. 
The  Essay :  The  satiric  Essays  of  Addison. 

The  satiric  Burlesque  of  any  prose  genre :  The  Don  Quixote  of 
Cervantes,  the  Gargantua  of  Rabelais  (parodies  of  the  Ro- 
mance of  Chivalry)  ;  The  Sermon  Joyeux  (parody  of  the 
Sermon). 

"  The  formal  verse-Satire :  Satires  of  Horace,  Juvenal, 

Ariosto,  Boileau,   Pope. 
The  Epigram :  The  Epigrams  of  Martial. 
The  Lampoon  or  Pasquinade :  Lampoons  by  Defoe. 
The   satirical   Ballad   and   Song:    The   Ballads   of  the 
Civil    War    and    Protectorate    in    England    (1630- 
1660)  ;  the  Songs  of  Beranger. 

"  The  satirical  Mock-Heroic :  La  Secchia  Rapita  of  Tas- 
soni ;  Le  Lutrin  of  Boileau ;  Hudibras  of  Butler ; 
Don  Juan  of  Byron. 
The    satiric    Tale :    The    satiric    Fabliau ;    Chaucer's 

Friar's  Tale. 

The  Beast-Epic :  Roman  de  Renart. 
The   satiric   Play:2   The   Plays   of   Aristophanes;    The 

Alchemist  of  Ben  Jonson. 
The  satiric  Fable :  Fables  of  Marie  de  France ;  Fables 

of  LaFontaine;  Fables  of  Gay,  of  Prior,  etc. 
The  satiric  Burlesque  of  any  poetic  genre:    (Parody) 
The  Morgante  Maggiore  of  Pulci ;  (Travesty)  The 
v.  Virgile  Travesti  of  Scarron. 

What,  then,  is  this  satirical  spirit  that  is  said  to  bring  all  these 
great  writers  under  the  same  category?  Is  it  not,  in  the  first 
place,  as  we  have  said,  essentially  the  spirit  of  adverse  or  nega- 
tive criticism,  the  spirit  that  prompts  attack?  Negative  crit- 
icism destroys.  Yet  this,  if  the  chief  and  essential  quality  of 
the  satirical  spirit,  is  still  but  one  of  its  elements,  and  varies 
greatly  in  degree.  Alone,  it  would  not  form  the  satirical  spirit 
in  its  entirety.  Negative  criticism  unalloyed  may  produce  in- 

*The  German  Fastnachtspiel,  though  embodying  much  incidental  satire, 
can  scarcely  be  termed  a  satiric  genre  (see  Creizenach,  Geschichte  des 
neueren  Dramas,  I,  416-420).  The  French  Farce  and  Sottie,  though  often 
dealing  in  very  effective  satire,  are,  as  genres,  humorous  rather  than  satirical 
(see  Creizenach,  I,  439-442 ;  Lenient,  La  Satire  en  France  au  Moyen  Age, 
ch.  XXII). 


Indirect 
method. 


8 

vectives,  sermons,  didacticism  in  many  forms,  but  not  satire. 
The  truly  satirical  spirit  includes  other  elements  that  vary  in 
degree  with  the  individual  satirist;  for  the  satirical  method 
of  Horace  is  not  that  of  Swift;  and  that  of  Byron  or  of  Berni 
is  not  that  of  Juvenal.  These  other  elements  consist,  on  the 
part  of  the  satirist,  in  a  sense  of  superiority,  a  sense  of  the 
ludicrous,  a  tendency  towards  exaggeration,  and  a  reformatory 
purpose. 

The  critical  spirit  implies  a  feeling  of  superiority,  which,  as 
the  concomitant  of  adverse  criticism,  is  always  in  some  degree 
present  in  satire,  but  increases  as  the  criticism  grows  more 
bitter,  e.  g.,  from  Horace  to  Juvenal.  It  is  found  even  in 
Horace,  who  delighted  to  include  himself  among  the  objects 
of  his  own  ridicule.  And  such  an  attitude  is  possible,  for  the 
personality  in  these  cases  is  objectified,  and  the  Satirist  be- 
comes superior  to  the  Man. 

Since  the  spirit  of  satire  is  negatively  critical,  the  tendency 
of  satire  is  of  course  destructive.  It  always  attacks  to  destroy, 
not,  primarily,  to  reform  the  object  of  its  criticism.  Still, 
though  there  is  little  expression  of  reformatory  purpose  in 
ideal  satire,  the  satirical  spirit  must  by  implication  construct 
where  it  has  torn  down ;  but  not  avowedly,  else  the  satire  drifts 
into  mere  didacticism.  From  this  the  truly  satirical  spirit  is 
distinguished  not  only  by  its  destructive  tendency  but  also  by 
its  sense  of  the  ludicrous.  The  destructive  element  it  has  in 
common  with  invective.  But  pure  invective  is  totally  lacking 
in  humor,  which  presupposes  sympathy  either  real  or  assumed. 
Humor  the  satirical  spirit  has  in  common  with  the  mighty 
mass  of  purely  uncritical  humorous  literature,  the  aim  of  which 
is  only  to  amuse  and  the  method  of  which  is  positive;  and 
though,  in  its  simpler  manifestations,  the  satirical  spirit  may  be 
identical  with  pure  humor  in  so  far  as  humor  depends  on  the 
perception  of  incongruities,  it  is  dissimilar  in  that  it  must  attack 
these  absurdities  made  evident  by  humor  and  reduce  them  to 
harmony.  Obviously,  humor  and  the  satirical  spirit  grow  more 
and  niore  unlike  as  the  latter  becomes  increasingly  antagonis- 
tic and  bitter  and  loses  the  mere  sense  of  amusement  in  a  feel- 
ing of  indignation. 


There  are  certain  elements  of  the  satirical  spirit  that  must 
vary  in  inverse  ratio  to  one  another.  Even  the  spirit  of  cen- 
sure that  prompts  adverse  criticism,  though  ever-present,  is  a 
variable  element  in  that  it  grows  more  pronounced  as  the  satir- 
ist becomes  more  earnest  and  indignant.  Though  essentially 
unsympathetic,  yet  in  its  lighter  moods  the  satirical  spirit  may 
be  tempered  by  humor,  which  is  thoroughly  sympathetic,  or  by 
a  sense  of  contemptuous  pity,  which  is  partially  so.  But  these 
qualities  are  eliminated,  as  the  criticism,  at  first  leavened  by 
a  large  sense  of  genuine  amusement,  passes  through  the  inter- 
mediate stages  of  a  more  stringent,  less  sympathetic  criticism, 
and  finally  becomes  direct  and  severe  rebuke,  unmitigated  by 
any  sense  of  the  ludicrous.  What  was  at  first  mild  and  even 
laughing  criticism,  has  become  bitter  invective;  what  was 
amusement,  has  become  unspeakable  contempt  and  scornful 
disgust.  (In  its  more  genial  manifestation,  the  satirical  spirit 
worked  to  make  its  object  merely  ridiculous ;  finally,  it  strives 
to  render  its  object  absolutely  loathsome.  Thus,  as  the  ad- 
verse criticism  grows  more  severe,  the  sense  of  humor  de- 
I  creases,  and  at  once  with  this  decline  of  sympathy,  the  earlier 
I  and  more  kindly  attributes  yield  to  scorn  and  contempt,  though 
I  the  moral  earnestness  apparently  gains  in  depth.  1 
^  The  tendency  toward  exaggeration  that  marks  every  mani- 
festation of  the  satirical  spirit  is  perhaps  rather  a  result  of 
its  working  than  an  essential  quality  of  its  being.  And  yet 
exaggeration  is  so  omnipresent  in  satire  that  it  is  easy  to  re- 
gard it  merely  as  a  varying  element  of  the  satiric  spirit  itself. 
Undoubtedly  it  often  results  from  the  satirist's  desire  to 
heighten  the  effect  of  those  incongruities  which  he  professes 
to  feel  so  keenly.  This,  of  course,  is  that  conscious  method 
of  which  Horace  is  an  excellent  exemplar.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  exaggeration  is  unconscious  and  inevitable,  it  must 
result  from  some  exaggerated — i.  e.}  distorted — view  of  life 
on  the  part  of  a  satirist  who  does  not  "  see  life  steadily  and 
see  it  whole."  Such  a  satirist  narrows  his  vision  down  to  the 
objects  of  his  attack,  removes  these  from  their  surroundings, 
fails  to  see  them  in  their  right  relations,  and  exaggerates  their 
importance.  Of  this  class  were  Juvenal  and  Swift. 


r 


10 

But  this  tendency  toward  exaggeration  is  not  the  only  qual- 
ity of  the  satirical  spirit  that  is  but  questionably  an  essential 
attribute.  A  certain  stock  definition  of  the  Satire  invariably 
refers  to  its  "reformatory  purpose."3  This  seems  highly 
questionable.  The  desire  to  reform  is  rather  an  incidental 
than  an  essential  quality.  Half  of  the  satire  in  literature  has 
sprung  from  no  apparent  reformatory  purpose,  though  such 
a  spirit  has  undoubtedly  inspired  some  of  the  world's  greatest 
satirical  masterpieces.  The  satirist  may  not  be  animated  by 
any  such  high  motive,  as  we  shall  see  later.  It  is  true  that 
the  result  of  all  genuine  satire  would  inevitably  be  reforma- 
tory, irrespective  of  the  author's  motive,  were  the  condition 
surrounding  its  reception  entirely  favorable  to  that  end.  So- 
cial satire,  for  instance,  reforms  only  when  it  gives  expression 
j  to  a  popular  desire  for  reform — in  other  words,  when  the  satir- 
*\  ist  is  merely,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  the  people's  voice 
I  in  some  great  movement.  This  spirit  of  reform  may  utilize  ' 
^-satirical  genius,  but  so  also  may  the  spirit  of  pure  malice. 
These,  of  course,  are  the  two  extremes.  But  granting  that 
in  many  cases  the  reformatory  purpose  is  predominant,  this 
spirit  seems  to  increase  with  the  earnestness  and  vigor  of  the 
criticism.  Yet  not  necessarily  so,  for  certainly  some  of  the 
milder  satirists,  such  as  Erasmus  and  Addison,  were  actuated 
by  this  high  motive;  and  many  of  the  most  severe,  as  Swift, 
Churchill  and  Oldham,  seem  to  have  been  inspired  more  by 
malice  than  by  any  desire  to  reform. 

So  much  for  the  elements  of  the  satirical  spirit,  whether 
essential  or  incidental,  variable  or  constant. 

We  must  not  confuse  the  elements  of  the  satirical  spirit 
with  those  stimuli  which  are  external  to  it.  These  stimuli  are 
furnished,  first,  by  a  sense  of  incongruity,  inconsistency,  and 
excess,  either  general  or  personal,  in  the  social,  political,  and 
literary  worlds;  and,  secondly,  by  a  sense  of  injury,  or  a  feel- 
ing of  dislike  or  hatred  toward  an  individual,  institution,  or 
class.  The  first  cause  results  in  the  more  general,  the  second 

*  Stock  phrases  of  this  character  are  usually  immature  generalizations 
from  a  few  standard  examples — principally  those  furnished  by  the  classical 
Latin  Satire ;  e.  g.,  Juvenal's  Satires,  VIII  and  XIV. 


11 

in  the  more  personal,  satire ;  but  the  former  produces  perhaps 
the  more  typical  variety,  as  personal  satire  too  easily  degener- 
ates into  invective.  Obviously,  we  find  at  times  these  stimuli 
working  together  so  closely  that  it  is  impossible  to  say  which 
preponderates.  The  animus  itself  may  have  been  somewhat 
malicious  and  personal,  and  yet,  as  in  Dryden's  Mac  Flecknoe, 
the  resulting  satire  may  be  that  of  the  higher  and  more  gen- 
eral order. 

A  discussion  of  these  external  stimuli  forms  a  natural  con- 
nection between  that  consideration  of  the  essential  nature  of 
the  satirical  spirit  which  has  already  been  undertaken,  and 
some  discussion  of  the  instruments  or  weapons  through  which 
that  spirit  works  and  manifests  itself  in  literature. 

It  is  obvious  that  as  the  satirical  spirit  grows  more  intense, 
its  instruments  must  change  accordingly.  There  is,  to  be 
sure,  no  sharp  line  of  demarcation  as  the  tone  changes.  One 
satirist  alone  may  in  turn  use  many  weapons.  Even  Horace 
does  not  confine  himself  to  lightest  raillery;  no  more  does 
Juvenal  always  fight  by  means  of  bitter  invective.  Still,  it  is 
safe  to  say  that  the  weapons  employed  by  a  satirist  of  the 
milder  type  are  sharper  and  lighter,  though  not  necessarily 
less  effective,  than  those  used  by  satirists  of  the  more  severe 
order.  Light  raillery,  slight  exaggeration,  an  abundant  sense 
of  the  ludicrous,  playful  wit,  and  a  certain  amount  of  gentle 
sarcasm,  are  characteristic  of  all  so-called  "  Horatian  "  satire. 
As  we  pass  through  the  second  class,  of  which  Dryden  and 
Pope  are  good  exemplars,  the  light  and  even  laughing  raillery 
is  lost,  and  the  humor  decreases,  though  the  wit  is  constant; 
the  exaggeration  is  greater,  the  sarcasm  grows  more  cutting, 
and  the  ridicule  more  obvious.  When  we  reach  the  third  class, 
that  of  Juvenal,  of  Swift,  and  of  Gifrbrd,  the  sarcasm  is  most 
bitter,  the  ridicule,  if  there  be  laughter  at  all,  is  unspeakably 
scornful,  humor  has  been  mainly  displaced  by  invective;  and, 
finally,  gross  exaggeration  is  everywhere  evident. 

We  have  seen  that  the  satirical  spirit,  using  these  weapons, 
finds  expression  in  a  vast  literature.  Its  perennial  life  has 
been  apparent  in  European  literature,  at  least,  since  the  days 
of  Archilochus — or  perhaps  Homer.  Its  expression  may  be 


12 

thoroughly  unliterary,  but  still  very  much  alive.  It  may  per- 
sist in  this  form  from  the  Fescennine  verses  of  the  Romans 
down  to  the  modern  political  street-song;  it  may  occur  in  the 
popular  Ballad,  and  in  almost  any  literary  form  of  the  Middle 
Ages.  It  may  seek  formal  expression  in  the  Satire  proper, 
the  Epigram,  the  Burlesque,  even  in  the  prose  Fable,  and  may 
find  less  formal  expression  in  any  genre  of  both  prose  and 
verse ; — in  prose,  the  Play,  the  Novel,  the  Essay ;  in  verse,  epic, 
lyric,  and  dramatic  poetry  in  all  their  sub-varieties  of  Ode, 
Sonnet,  Elegy,  Verse-Fable,  Epistle,  and  the  rest. 

The  Satire,  then,  never  really  dies,  but  changes  shape,  when 
it  rises  into  literature,  and  adapts  itself  to  prevailing  genres. 
Both  formal  and  popular  satire  are  animated  by  the  same 
spirit,  but  the  Satire  assumes  superior  form  and  becomes  lit- 
erature under  the  same  conditions  that  affect  the  state  of  liter- 
ature in  general;  and  this  is  true,  although  in  certain  epochs 
when  highly  imaginative  literature  is  eclipsed,  the  purely  clas- 
sical Satire  flourishes.  Such  was  the  case  in  the  so-called 
"  Augustan  Age  "  of  English  literature.  By  this  time  the  for- 
mal Satire  had  been  completely  evolved,  and  can  be  considered 
as  an  independent  product.  But  up  to  this  period — the  period 
of  Dry  den  and  of  Pope — the  unliterary  satire,  including  all 
that  immeasurable  mass  of  prose  and  verse  making  no  preten- 
sion to  literary  worth,  often  showed  a  tendency  or  in  some 
way  affected  the  purely  literary  product.  Such  was  un- 
doubtedly true  of  the  verse-satire  of  the  early  and  middle 
seventeenth  century  in  England.  Hence,  until  the  time  of 
Dryden,  any  consideration  of  formal  satire  in  England  must 
be  supplemented  by  some  reference  to  the  unliterary  product 
with  which  it  was  so  closely  allied. 

We  have  attempted  in  the  preceding  pages  to  determine  the 
nature  and  the  working  of  the  spirit  that  gives  a  distinguishing 
tone  to  the  great  mass  of  literature  we  term  "  satirical."  Now 
we  can  undertake  some  differentiation  between  the  part  of  that 
satirical  literature  which  is  written  in  prose  and  the  part  which 
is  written  in  verse. 


13 

II 

When  we  consider  the   formal   Satire,  we  find  the  broad 
division  into  prose  and  verse-satire  most  convenient.     Prose- 
satire  divides  itself  into  two  great  groups:    first,  the  medita- 
tive Satire  in  essay  form,  with  its  variations ;  and,  secondly, 
the  imaginative  and  creative  forms,  such  as  the  Dialogue,  Play, 
Tale,  and  Novel.     Under  verse-satire  we  find,  first,  the  clas-     ; 
sical  Satire,  meditative  and  realistic ;  secondly,  burlesque  poetry,     \ 
including  every  form  of  parody  and  travesty. 

Satire  in  prose  is  almost  incapable  of  classification,  as  it  is 
Protean  in  its  shape,  and  invades  the  domain  of  many  genres. 
The  professed  or  "  formal  "  Satire  in  prose,  such  as  The  Praise 
of  Folly  of  Erasmus,  is  rare.  Prose-satire  has  in  the  main 
proved  ineffective  except  when  disguised.*  But  under  the  dis- 
guise of  other  genres  it  has,  for  obvious  reasons,  made  a  much 
wider  and  more  effective  appeal  than  the  Satire  in  verse.  Its 
material  is  of  far  greater  scope,  and  includes  not  only  the 
vagaries  and  follies  of  the  upper  classes,  which  have  proved 
so  prolific  a  source  of  material  to  the  verse-satirist,  but  also 
embraces  all  the  varied  interests  of  human  society.  The  prose- 
Satire,  too,  has  been  more  polemic,  more  reformatory  in  its 
purpose,  and  more  efficient  in  working  out  its  reformation. 
It  has  made  a  more  popular  appeal  by  means  of  more  popular 
material  and  a  more  popular  style.  It  is  the  Satire  of  action 
rather  than  of  reflection,  aimed  at  society  at  large  rather  than  at 
classes.  Its  form  is  less  restricted  by  precedent  than  that  of 
the  Satire  in  verse,  which  consciously  follows  literary  models 
and  has  its  tone,  form,  and  choice  of  material  more  or  less 
influenced  by  such  precedent.  This  distinction,  however, 
would  apply  rather  to  the  classical  Satire  and  classical  Mock- 
Epic  than  to  burlesque  verse-satire,  which  in  material  and  L 
method  approaches  more  nearly  the  scope  and  power  of  the 
prose  Satire.  Both  in  literature  and  in  life  prose-satire  has 
played  the  larger  part.  In  addition  to  its  greater  scope  of 
material,  it  has  offered  a  wider  field  to  the  imagination  through 

*  Even  The  Praise  of  Folly,  since  its  method  is  really  indirect,  wears  a 
thin  disguise.  The  piece  is  in  truth  a  glorified  sermon  joyeux,  and  thor- 
oughly ironical. 


14 

its  freedom  from  metrical  restrictions.  Lucian,  Erasmus, 
Ulrich  von  Hutten,  Fischart,  Rabelais,  Cervantes,  De  Foe, 
Swift,5  Voltaire,  are  perhaps  the  greatest  names  in  prose- 
satire,  though  in  different  spheres.  To  equal  these  in  creative 
genius,  verse-satire  has  scarcely  a  name  to  offer  except  that 
of  Aristophanes. 

For  the  satirical  spirit  is  anything  but  idealistic  in  its  treat- 
\  ment — it  is  realistic;  it  deals,  in  the  main,  with  sordid  aspects 
of  life  and  character,  not  with  those  higher  and  more  beauti- 
ful phases  with  which  pure  poetry  concerns  Itself.  Hence  this 
spirit  finds  its  natural  expression  in  prose.  Certainly  there  are 
cases  in  which  this  very  material  has  been  transmuted  into 
something  truly  poetical  by  the  force  of  the  satirist's  emotions. 
The  satires  of  Juvenal  at  times  exemplify  this  fact;  and  in 
Mac  Flecknoe  Dryden  has  actually  raised  his  Shadwell  into 
something  universal  and  poetical.  (  But,  in  the  main,  it  must 
be  acknowledged  that  the  Satire  in  verse  is  not  essentially 
poetry.  JThe  satirist  is  scarcely  animated  by  emotions  "  that 
voluntary  move  harmonious  numbers."  When  he  has  written 
in  verse,  from  Horace  to  Pope,  he  has  chosen  this  method  of 
expression  on  account  of  its  conciseness  and  its  opportunity 
'for  epigrammatic  point.  But  this  choice  has  determined  the 
form  of  what  we  call  preeminently  The  Satire. 

Now  that  we  have  ascertained  the  nature  and  the  working 
of  the  satirical  spirit,  and  have  distinguished  between  satire 
in  verse  and  satire  in  prose,  we  can  proceed  to  carry  out  the 
third  part  of  the  program  outlined  on  page  6.  This  leads 
first  to  some  discussion  of  the  two  chief  methods  employed 
by  the  verse-Satire. 

Ill 

The  verse-Satire,  whether  the  form  be  that  of  Horace  or 
that  of  Butler  and  of  Byron,  has  in  general  two  methods  of 
expression :  the  direct,  and  the  indirect  or  dramatic.  These 
two  methods  are  fundamentally  distinct  and  usually  exist  sepa- 
rately, but,  as  may  appear  later,  are  occasionally  found  in  com- 

6  The  satiric  pamphlet  of  the  early  eighteenth  century  in  England,  han- 
died  so  brilliantly  by  Defoe  and  Swift,  furnishes  perhaps  the  best  examples 
of  effective  prose-satire  in  our  literature. 


15 

bination.  The  direct  method  is  that  of  the  pulpit — hortatory, 
reflective,  expository,  didactic.  Possibly  this  was  the  earlier 
method,  for  satire  in  its  origin  was  certainly  largely  personal. 
In  pure  literature  the  classical  Latin  type  is  the  chief  exponent 
of  this  direct  method. 

The  development — or  evolution — of  the  Latin  Satire,  from 
its  faint  beginnings  in  Ennius,  through  its  treatment  by  Lucil- 
ius,  to  its  perfect  form  in  Horace,  Persius,  and  Juvenal,  has 
been  traced  so  often  and  so  thoroughly  that  there  is  here  no 
need  of  such  a  history.  What  remains  to  be  done  is  to  treat 
specifically  the  exact  form  of  this  Latin  Satire  in  its  Roman 
period,  and  to  determine  the  influence  of  Horace,  Persius,  and 
Juvenal  upon  the  formal  English  Satire  of  the  Elizabethan  \ 
and  Augustan  eras.  Such  a  treatment,  however,  would  be 
out  of  place  in  a  work  that  ends  its  study  with  the  year  1540, 
at  the  very  appearance  of  the  classical  Satire  in  England. 
Still,  in  order  clearly  to  show  how  utterly  the  medieval  Eng- 
lish satirical  poetry  differs  from  this  classical  product,  we  must 
here  attempt  a  general  characterization  of  that  very  clearly 
defined  and  formal  genre,  the  classical  Latin  Satire. 

The  Satire  of  Horace,  Persius,  and  Juvenal  was  as  separate 
and  distinct  a  literary  genre  as  any  in  literature.  Though 
running  a  certain  gamut  in  tone  and  even  undergoing  certain 
changes  of  form  from  Lucilius,  through  Horace  and  Persius, 
to  Juvenal,  it  still  retained  its  unique  character.  It  was  clear- 
cut,  definite,  precise.  Hence,  despite  these  changes  of  form 
and  tone,  it  may  still  be  possible  to  frame  some  comprehensive 
description  that  shall  serve  as  a  test  for  any  imitations  of  this 
type: 

The  classical  Satire  is  written  in  a  dignified  and  uniform 
meter,  and,  at  its  longest,  is  a  comparatively  short  poem.  It 
is  not  characterized  by  any  fixed  organism,  but  is  remarkable 
for  an  extent  of  ideas  which  somewhat  compensates  for  this 
lack  of  definite  structure.  It  may  utilize  various  methods  of 
expression,  such  as  those  of  direct  address,  narrative,  or  dia- 
logue; but  remains  largely  a  subjective  poem  depending 
for  its  formal  details  entirely  on  the  personality  of  the 
individual  satirist.  Thus  it  drifts  naturally  into  self-reve- 


16 

lation.  It  deals  largely  in  personalities  to  illustrate  its 
teachings.  Its  purpose  is  mainly  that  of  destructive  criti- 
cism,— the  objects  of  its  attack  range  from  the  smallest 
breach  of  good-taste  in  the  social  or  the  literary  worlds 
to  the  grossest  crime  against  morality;  and  its  weapons, 
consonant  with  its  subject-matter,  vary  from  the  lightest  rail- 
lery to  the  bitterest  invective.  Finally,  this  classical  Satire  is 
purely  formal  and  arises  from  the  writer's  reflective  turn  of 
mind  rather  than  from  any  polemic  or  reformatory  motive. 
Its  emphasis  is  entirely  on  private  evils  and  it  is  devoid  of 
political  or  distinctly  religious  coloring. 

This  same  classical  species  has  appeared  again  and  again, 
since  the  beginning  of  the  Renaissance,  in  Italy,  Spain,  France, 
England,  and  Germany.  It  has  always  risen  as  the  work  of 
scholarly,  or  would-be  scholarly,  poets,  under  direct  classical 
influence.  Often  dry,  pedantic,  and  dull,  but  still  occasionally 
with  something  of  native  flavor  and  force,  it  rises  at  its  best 
into  the  inimitable  work  of  Boileau  and  of  Pope.  This  type, 
which  above  all  others  deserves  to  be  called  the  Satire,  is 
easily  recognized.  Its  range  is  limited,  and  of  all  genres  it  is 
perhaps  the  most  self-conscious  and  purely  formal.  Arising 
in  Kngland  with  Wyatt,6  it  was  later  utilized  by  Hall,  Donne, 
and  others ;  again  in  a  more  favorable  age  by  Pope  and  Young, 
and  finally  by  Gifford.  It  is  significant  that  the  classical 
Satire  adopts  the  great  national  verse  of  its  vernacular  and 
rarely  appears  in  any  other  form:  in  Italy  and  Spain,  the 
terza-rima ;  in  France,  the  Alexandrine ;  in  England,  the  heroic 
couplet. 

Just  here  it  may  be  well  to  notice  briefly  a  genre,  by  modern 
consensus  termed  satirical,  which  has  always  closely  associated 
itself  with  the  formal  Satire,  and  which  by  preference  em- 
ploys the  direct  method.  This  genre  is  the  Epigram.  Des- 
pite innumerable  popular  articles  on  the  subject,  there  yet 
remains  to  be  written  a  thorough  and  consistent  treatment  of 
the  history  of  this  most  variable  and  ill-defined  form.  The 
Greek  epigram  was  not  often  satirical — though  among  the 

6  See  infra,  p.  227. 


17 

later  epigrams  of  the  Anthology  occur  a  few — by  Lucian, 
Lucilius,  and  others — that  point  the  way  toward  Martial.  The 
Latin  Martial,  epigrammatist  par  excellence  of  all  literature, 
was,  though  satirist  by  preference,  yet  not  always  satirical. 
In  his  case  it  was  perhaps  rather  the  nature  of  the  writer  than 
the  demands  of  the  literary  form  that  made  his  epigrams 
satirical.  Martial's  influence,  however,  pervading  all  the  sub- 
sequent history  of  the  genre,  has  practically  identified  the  Epi-  s 
gram  with  satire.  The  medieval  Latin  epigrammatists  were 
his  followers — Godfrey  of  Winchester  and  Henry  of  Hunt- 
ingdon7 among  the  English  writers,  for  instance ;  and  so  were 
the  Latin  epigrammatists  of  the  Renaissance,  such  as  Bembo, 
Scaliger,  Buchanan,  and  More.  In  English,  came  the  vast 
flood  of  Martialian  epigrams  in  the  time  of  Elizabeth,  begin- 
ning with  those  of  John  Hey  wood,  and  in  a  later  period  the  ^ 
golden  age  of  the  English  epigram  under  the  seventeenth- 
century  poets,  with  Pope  at  their  head.  The  Epigram  of  Ben 
Jonson — Greek  rather  than  Martialian — differs  so  widely  from  . 
that  of  Pope,  for  instance,  that  it  would  seem  impossible  to 
obtain  any  satisfactory  description  of  a  genre  including  prod- 
ucts so  diverse.  For  the  Greek  epigram  meant  almost  any- * 

thing — a  short  poem  on  an  occasion,  real  or  supposed — verse, 
style,  matter,  tone,  varying  ad  libitum.  The  epigram  of  Mar- 
tial and  his  imitators  is  usually  satirical  in  intent,  but  differs 
from  the  Satire  in  something  more  fundamental  than  in  length. 
For  the  typical  satirical  epigram  must  be  not  only  compara- 
tively short,  but  complete;  not  only  witty,  but  concrete;  not 
general,  but  specific,  occasional.  Moreover,  it  gives  but  one 
glimpse,  one  side,  of  the  object  attacked.  Such  is  the  truly 
satirical  Epigram  through  all  its  history,  from  Catullus  down 
to  the  present  day. 

What  is  the  chronological  place  of  the  Epigram  in  English 
satire?  Except  for  the  school  of  Anglo-Latin  satirists  of  the 
eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries,  no  place  at  all  until  the  Renais- 
sance, and  then  no  place  as  a  vernacular  form  until  the  Eliza- 
bethans. When  the  Epigram  assumes  the  rank  of  a  leading 

T  Not  treated  in  the  present  volume ;  their  Epigrams,  scholarly  imitations 
of  those  of  Martial,  form  "  an  isolated  phenomenon." 


18 

genre  and  vies  with  the  Satire  itself  in  depicting  contemporary 
manners,  a  fuller  treatment  of  its  nature  and  history  will  be 
necessary.  In  the  history  of  English  literature,  such  is  not 
the  case  until  the  age  of  Elizabeth. 

The  purely  classical  variety  of  the  Satire,  interesting  and 
\  important  as  it  is,  has  yet  never  been  the  prevailing,  most 
characteristic,  or  most  effective  type  of  its  own  genre.  The 
narrative  burlesque  of  Italy  and  the  Mock-Epic  have  prepon- 
j  derated.  Almost  all  of  the  great  satire  in  Italian  literature 
/  employs  the  indirect  method  of  pure  burlesque.  Indeed,  the 
^  second  great  method  employed  by  the  Satire — the  method  that 
has  already  been  termed  indirect  or  dramatic — is  chiefly  exem- 
plified by  Burlesque. 

Burlesque  is  either  pictorial  or  literary.  The  pictorial  bur- 
lesque— called  caricature — consists  in  the  selection  of  charac- 
teristic features  of  an  original  and  the  exaggeration  of  those 
features  with  ludicrous  effect.  When  this  exaggeration  tran- 
scends the  bounds  of  the  possible,  the  burlesque  passes  into 
grotesque  caricature.  The  difference  is  one  of  degree,  not 
of  kind.8  So  it  is  with  the  literary  burlesque,  which  is  also 
essentially  caricature.  The  grotesque  in  literature  is  the 
further  exaggeration  of  the  burlesque.  The  motive  remains 
the  same :  the  grotesque  Satire  is  the  burlesque  Satire  carried 
into  the  realm  of  the  impossible.9 

The  grotesque  has  found  its  highest  expression  in  prose. 
Its  masters  have  been  such  writers  as  Rabelais,  Fischart,  and 
Swift.  In  poetry  it  appears  in  the  mock-heroic  Orlandino  and 
Maccaronea  of  the  Italian,  Teofilo  Folengo,  parodist  of  Ari- 
osto  (1491-1544);  and  in  the  M organic  Maggiore  of  Pulci 
(1432-1487).  The  grotesque  has  not  flourished  in  English 
poetry,  though  traces  of  it  appear  in  Butler's  Hudibras;  but 
the  burlesque  poem  is  splendidly  exemplified  by  the  work  of 
Dryden,  of  Pope,  and  of  Byron.  The  English  comic  imagina- 
tion, with  the  exception  of  Swift,  who  was  of  the  train  of 
Aristophanes  and  Rabelais,  has  not  achieved  that  broad  gro- 

8  See  Schneegans,  Geschichte  der  Grotesken  Satire,  p.  46. 

9  Ibid.,  Einleitung,  p.  33. 


19 

tesque  style  so  loved  and  so  magnificently  handled  by  the  great 
continental  masters.  This  grotesque  method  has  always  car- 
ried with  it  a  certain  peculiar  style,  free  from  restraint,  often 
gross,  shaking  with  large  laughter.  The  grotesque  writer 
laughs  at  conventionalities;  his  colossal  figures  stride  easily 
over  these  petty  things ;  his  style  runs  past  restraint.  An  Eng- 
lishman like  Swift  achieves  it;  other  Englishmen  have  been 
incapable  of  it. 

Instead  of  the  open  rebuke  and  immediate  attack  of  the 
direct  satirist,  the  burlesque  writer,  not  necessarily  less  earnest 
and  determined,  works  more  effectually  by  means  of  irony.10 
For,  in  such  a  case,  the  contrast  between  the  satirist's  ethical 
ideal  (Ethos)  and  the  picture  he  paints  is  complete  and  con- 
vincing.11 Again  the  method  of  the  stage  asserts  its  general 
superiority ;  for,  as  the  burlesque  approaches  dramatic  form  in 
speech  and  action,  it  undoubtedly  gains  in  power  and  effective- 
ness. It  leaves  farther  behind  the  method  of  the  pulpit,  and 
adopts  that  of  the  stage,  its  home. 

In  respect  to  form,  burlesque  poetry  is  roughly  divisible  into 
travesty  and  parody. 

The  travesty  is  a  comparatively  rare  variety,  for  its  range 
of  subject-matter  and  form  are  limited.  It  consists  in  the 
degradation  of  elevated  material  through  inferior  form.12 
This  subject-matter  of  the  poetic  travesty  has  usually  been 
drawn  from  various  mythologies ;  not  invariably,  however,  for 
any  superior  material,  ideas,  institutions,  and  so  on,  may  be 
travestied.  In  the  mythological  world,  Scarron's  travesty  of 
the  TEneid  is  perhaps  the  most  famous  and  successful  of  its 
kind.  Of  this  kind  English  literature  has  a  host  of  examples 
— "  Scarronides,"  "  Homerides,"  etc.,  which  vary  from  mere 
insipidity  to  rank  vulgarity,  but  agree  in  their  common  lack  of 
literary  merit.  The  usual  satirical  range  of  the  travesty  is 
narrow;  but  for  Scarron's  satire  there  was  ample  scope:  at 
the  court  of  Louis  XIV  the  sublime  grew  irksome.  The  great 
Greek  satirist  Lucian  (c.  165  A.  D.),  and  his  imitator,  the 

10  See  Schneegans,  p.  495. 

11  Ibid.,  p.  495. 

12  The  travesty   occurs   very   rarely   in   England  before   the   Renaissance ; 
but  is  exemplified  in  On  the  Council  of  London;  see  infra,  p.  87. 


20 

German  humanist  and  reformer,  Ulrich  von  Hutten  (1520), 
though  writing  in  prose,  used  the  travesty  as  a  most  effective 
vehicle  for  satire.  Yet,  in  the  main,  humanity  prefers  that 
the  truly  sublime  remain  on  its  lofty  pedestal ;  hence  the  use 
of  the  travesty  for  satirical  purposes  has  never  been  very  gen- 
eral or  successful.13 

The  parody,14  more  frequently  encountered,  is  the  reverse 
of  the  travesty.  It  consists  in  the  use  of  dignified  form  for 
inferior  material,  with  intentionally  burlesque  effect.15  Every 
poetic  species,  from  the  Epic  to  the  Sonnet,  suffers  this  pa- 
rodic  ridicule.  The  burlesque  may  be  intended  to  degrade 
the  form  merely,  to  render  the  subject-matter  ridiculous,  or 
to  effect  both  purposes  at  once.  The  first  purpose  is  illustrated 
by  the  Batrachomyomachia;  the  second  by  Pope's  Dunciad; 
both  together  by  La  Secchia  Rapita  of  the  Italian  poet  Tassoni. 

Parody  of  the  form  usually  follows  the  decadence  or  the 
abuse  of  any  poetical  genre;  such  as,  in  Italy,  the  Sonnet  in 
.the  sixteenth,16  and  the  Epic  in  the  seventeenth,  century.  This 
is  well  illustrated  by  the  burlesque  Sonnets  of  Francesco  Cop- 
petta  (1510-1554),  who  parodied  Petrarch;  and  the  Mock- 
Epics  of  Teofilo  Folengo  and  of  Tassoni,  who  ridiculed  the 
Epic  poets.  Such,  also,  are  the  parodies  of  the  Fable,  Elegy, 
and  Eclogue,  in  the  England  of  Pope,  when  a  great  mass  of 
parodies,  mainly  in  ridicule  of  the  form,  marks  the  exaggera- 
ated  use  of  each  of  these  genres  in  the  early  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. These  parodies  appear  at  their  best  in  the  work  of  John 
Gay  (1688-1732),  such  as  The  Shepherd's  Week  and  Town 
Eclogues,  parodies  of  the  Pastoral;  Trivia,  in  ridicule  of  the 

u  For  an  interesting  account  of  the  travesty  with  ample  illustration,  see 
Babuder,  L'Eroicomica  e  Generi  Affini  di  Poesia  Giocosa-Satirica,  p.  36  f. 

14  Parody  is  here  used  in  its  narrow  sense  as  the  burlesque  of  a  literary 
form.     Burlesque  has   another  species  of  parody — that  of  ideas,  habits   of 
thought,  speech,  action, — which  is  broader  and  more  significant. 

15  Wireker's  Speculum  Stultorum  may  be  termed  a  parody ;  see  infra,  p.  43. 

16  Other  poets  who  used  the  sonnet  for  satirical  purposes,  but  perhaps  not 
in  parody  of  the  form,   were   Domenico   Burchiello    (1400-48)  ;    Francesco 
Berni   (1497-1535),  who  used  the  form  for  violent  personal  satire,  as  did 
Matteo    Franco,   his   contemporary,   who   wrote   two   hundred   and   eighteen 
Sonnets  against  Aretino !     Another  contemporary,  Pulci,  follows  the  tradi- 
tion of  Burchiello.     To  parallel  these,  we  have  in   Spanish  literature  the 
burlesque  Sonnets  of  Gongora  (d.  1626). 


21 

prevailing  didactic  poetry;  Elegy  on  a  Lap-Dog-,  parody  of 
the  Elegy ;  and  the  Satirical  Fables.17 

The  double  purpose  of  ridiculing  both  form  and  matter  is 
illustrated  by  Canning's  famous  Knife-Grinder  (i797),18  in 
which  Southey's  dignified  sapphics  are  rendered  absurd,  and 
the  material  is  in  its  turn  satirized  through  the  superior  form 
it  is  made  to  assume. 

From  all  this  it  should  be  evident  that  the  satirical  spirit 
may  so  utilize  any  poetical  form  that  the  piece  practically  be- 
comes a  Satire.  Still  these  formal  parodies  are  complex  in 
their  nature,  for  they  share  the  characteristics  of  another 
genre — the  genre  that  they  parody.  The  result  is  satire  in 
the  form  of  an  elegy,  an  ode,  a  sonnet,  etc. ;  and  though  many 
a  one  of  these  is  purely  satirical,  yet  to  avoid  confusion,  it  is 
better  to  admit  that  each  genre  has  its  mock-  or  parodic-  7 
variety,  which  may  be  used  for  satirical  purposes,  but  does  not 
rise  into  formal  satire.  Thus  may  be  treated  a  great  mass  of 
confusing  material  that  would  highly  complicate  any  attempt 
to  differentiate  the  Satire  from  other  genres  of  poetry. 

But  that  parody  on  the  epic  genre  that  is  called  the  Mock- 
Epic  is  a  genre  in  itself.  Its  dignity  is  far  greater  than  that 
of  any  other  parody,  and  it  occasionally  rises  to  the  height  of 
creative  literature.  It  has  existed  side  by  side  with  the  epic 
since  the  days  of  the  imitators  of  Homer.  The  exalted  char- 
acter of  the  epic  form  in  burlesque  affords  the  best  imaginable 
contrast  between  manner  and  matter;  and  hence  the  poetical 
burlesque  is  here  at  its  best — either  in  the  true  Mock-Epic  or 
in  the  narrative  burlesque  poem  of  the  Italian  school.  These, 
two  varieties  constitute  what  is  loosely  called  the  Mock-Epic, 
but  more  correctly  the  mock-heroic  poem  in  general. 

The  mock-heroic  poem  is  a  parodic  form  and  may  well  be      £_ 
treated  under  the  present  head.     Its  first  variety,  the  true 
Mock-Epic,  is  in  itself  of  varied  character,  yet  is  always  a 
parody  of  the  epic  form,  whether  its  original  be  the  epic  of 

17  Further   illustrations   are    furnished   by   the   Art   of  Love   and   Art   of 
Cookery,  of  William  King  (1663-1712)  ;  and  Art  of  Preaching,  by  Christo- 
pher Pitt  (1699-1748). 

18  Poetry  of  the  Anti-Jacobin,  ed.  Edmonds  (1890). 


22 

Homer  or  of  Ariosto.  However,  the  truly  classical  Mock- 
^  Epic,  such  as  The  Dunciad  of  Pope,  has  been  the  chief  Eng- 
lish type.  A  second  variety  is  that  of  the  burlesque  narrative 
poem  of  Italian  origin — an  admirable  vehicle  for  satire.  Of 
v  this  type,  Byron's  Don  Juan  is  perhaps  the  greatest  English 
example.  Butler's  Hudibras,  though  vastly  different  from 
Don  Juan  in  character  and  in  origin,  is  also  to  be  classed  here. 
In  these  narrative  burlesques,  not  epic  in  the  strictest  sense, 
the  indirect  method  is  frequently  exchanged  for  the  direct, 
the  narrative  framework  is  forgotten,  and  the  satirist  speaks 
in  propria  persona.  Such  is  rarely  the  case  in  the  true  Mock- 
Epic. 

All  mock-heroic  poems  fall  into  two  general  classes:  those 
written  primarily  to  amuse,  in  which  satire  is  merely  inciden- 
tal ;  and  those  which  are  primarily  satirical,  and  claim  the  rank 
of  professed  Satires.  The  first  class  would  include  such 
poems  as  Boileau's  Le  Lutrin  and  Pope's  The  Rape  of  the 
Lock.  The  second,  and  far  more  comprehensive,  class  would 
include,  in  English  literature  alone,  Pope's  Dunciad,  Cam- 
bridge's Scribbleriad,  Dryden's  Mac  Flecknoe,  and  Byron's 
Vision  of  Judgment. 

We  are  concerned,  however,  only  with  those  mock-heroic 
poems  that  are  professedly  satirical.  Of  these,  those  that  are 
mock-epic  are  parodies  of  the  epic  form;  while  the  mere  nar- 
rative burlesques  are  parodies  of  the  heroic  narrative  poem  or 
"  metrical  romance."  Hence  consistency  requires  that  this 
satirical  and  mock-heroic  poetry,  in  so  far  as  it  is  actually 
parody  and  therefore  complex  in  its  formal  nature,  should  be 
treated  as  the  parodies  of  the  minor  poetical  genres,  and  de- 
clared outside  the  pale  of  the  Satire.  But  the  Satire  has 
adopted  this  mock-heroic  form  as  its  own  in  a  sense  in  which 
it  has  accepted  no  other  parodic  form,  and  made  it  the  prin- 
cipal vehicle  for  the  indirect  method.  As  has  been  said,  the 
length  and  general  dignity  of  the  mock-heroic  differentiate  it 
from  other  and  less  pretentious  parodies  and  render  it  a  dis- 
tinct genre.  Finally,  an  excellent  argument  lies  in  the  fact 
that  to  exclude  the  mock-heroic  poem  would  be  to  refuse  rec* 


23 

ognition  to  some  of  the  greatest  of  our  English  Satires,  such 
as  Mac  Flecknoe,  Hudibras,  and  Don  Juan. 

This  burlesque  treatment  is  no  new  method.  If  we  con- 
sider the  classical  Latin  Satire  alone,  which  has  been  taken 
as  a  model  of  the  direct  method,  we  find  it  but  a  step  from 
Horace's  Appian  Bore18  and  Juvenal's  Domitian  and  the 
Mighty  Turbot,20  to  the  more  elaborate  and  conscious  exag- 
geration of  the  pure  burlesque.  The  germ,  the  possibility, 
lives  even  in  the  Latin  Satire.  But  its  origin  is  still  more 
remote  than  this.  To  find  how  ancient  the  burlesque  method 
is,  and  how  the  mock-heroic  particularly  has  served  as  a 
vehicle  for  satire,  we  must  go  back  to  the  Greeks,  who  utilized 
the  burlesque  centuries  before  Lucilius  became  the  first  great 
exponent  of  the  direct  method. 

Among  the  Greeks  the  satirical  spirit  undoubtedly  found  its 
first  literary  expression  in  burlesque.  The  direct  and  personal 
Satires  of  Archilochus,  Hipponax,  and  Simonides  of  Amorgos, 
came  later.  They  were  never  the  typical  Greek  form,  if  ever 
they  rose  into  sufficient  dignity  of  length  and  tone  to  be  con- 
sidered as  Satires.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  exact  form 
and  content  of  the  Homeric  Margites  (700  B.  C.  [?]),  it  was 
very  probably  a  burlesque  Satire — "  the  first  Dunciad,"  Flogel 
calls  it,  with  apparent  propriety.21  This  same  epic  form  was 
assumed  later  by  the  pseudo-Homeric  Mock-Epic,  the  Batrach- 
omyomachia  (150  B.  C.  [?]),  which  ridicules  the  Epic  by 
making  frogs  and  mice  engage  in  mighty  combat  in  the  true 
heroic  manner. 

Parodies  and  travesties  seem  to  have  been  numerous. 
Hegemo  Thasius,  who  lived  during  the  Peloponnesian  war, 
burlesqued  the  Sicilian  expedition.  Eubeus  of  Paros,  a  con- 
temporary of  Philip  of  Macedon,  wrote  four  books  of  parodies 
on  the  Homeric  war.  All  these  are  of  course  in  epic  style. 
The  dramatic  burlesque  was  represented  in  the  plays  of  the  , 
earlier  comic  dramatists.  Epicharmus  the  Sicilian  (470  B.  C.) 
described  the  nuptials  of  Hercules  and  Hebe  in  travesty;  and 

19  Horace,  Ser.  I,  IX. 

20  Juvenal,  Sat.  IV. 

11  See  Flogel,  Geschichte  der  komischen  Litteratur,  Vol.  I,  p.  345. 


24 

Cratinus  (423  B.  C.)  travestied  the  intrigues  of  Zeus  and 
Leda.22  In  The  Frogs  of  Aristophanes  we  have  both  parody 
and  travesty ;  the  former  in  the  literary  satire  on  the  work  of 
Euripides ;  the  latter  in  the  burlesque  representation  of  gods 
and  heroes. 

Later,  during  the  Alexandrian  decline,  come  the  famous 
Silli,  of  which  the  two  most  distinguished  writers  were 
Xenophanes  of  Colophon  and  Timon  of  Phlius  (c.  300  B.  C.). 
From  the  few  fragments  of  the  Silli  that  have  come  down  to 
us  we  judge  them  to  have  been  parodic  poems,  in  which  the 
heroic  verses  of  great  poets  were  perverted  to  satirize  current 
philosophical  dogmas.23 

From  these  typical  illustrations  it  is  evident  that  Greek  satire 
mainly  employed  the  method  of  burlesque,  and  particularly  of 
parody.  Aristophanes  occasionally  uses  the  formal  parody,  but 
he  prefers  that  more  subtle  and  effective  parodic  method  that 
does  not  necessarily  parody  the  literary  form  of  an  original,  but 
burlesques  the  habits  of  thought  and  speech  of  the  object  to 
be  satirized.  It  caricatures  so  effectually  that  the  satire  be- 
comes immediately  apparent,  and  the  thought  and  action  satir- 
ized become  their  own  refutation.  (This  form  of  parody  is 
that  characteristic  of  the  stage  in  all  ages,  and  renders  the 
satiric  comedy  from  Aristophanes,  through  Moliere^  to  the 
present  day,  the  most  effective  vehicle  for  satire.24  j  When 
great  imaginative  genius  speaks  in  satire  it  utilizes  this  dra- 
matic method.25  The  formal  Satire  after  the  classical  Latin 
type,  which  satirizes  existing  social  conditions,  seems  never 
truly  to  flourish  in  a  great  creative  age;  for  in  such  an  age, 
satire  speaks  through  the  drama  or  by  the  general  dramatic 
method.  When  Aristophanes  spoke  from  the  stage,  no  work 
was  left  to  be  done  by  the  formal  satirist  of  the  classical  Latin 
type.  This  formal  Satire,  however,  may  not  necessarily  be 
the  product  of  a  society  thoroughly  settled  and  apparently 
immutable.  We  notice  that  Juvenal,  who  feels  himself  writing 

22  See  Babuder,  pp.  6,  7. 

23  See  Miiller  and  Donaldson,  History  of  the  Literature  of  Ancient  Greece, 
Vol.  2,  pp.  462-3. 

24  Cf.  infra,  p.  220. 

28  In  England,  for  example,  the  satirical  comedies  of  Ben  Jonson.      Cf. 
infra,  p.  220. 


25 

in  an  age  of  decay,  makes  his  whole  protest  against  the  pass- 
ing of  the  old,  and  what  he  affirms  to  be  the  better,  order. 
But  such  a  school  of  satire  is  certainly,  at  its  best,  the  product 
of  a  non-dramatic  period.  Greek  society  could  have  furnished 
ample  material  for  the  Horatian  Satire.  For  this,  on  the  one 
hand,  the  age  of  Aristophanes  was  not  too  troublous,  nor 
society  too  homogeneous  on  the  other.  But  the  imaginative 
genius  of  this  period  found  its  expression  in  the  drama — from 
the  tragedies  of  yEschylus  to  the  satiric  comedy  of  Aristopha- 
nes and,  later,  of  Menander. 

From  the  Margites  to  the  Silli,  we  may  infer  the  broad  scope 
of  Greek  satire,  with  its  literary,  social,  personal,  and  political 
elements.  It  was  epic  in  the  Margites  and  Batrachomyoma- 
chia;  lyric  in  the  personal  invective  Satires  of  the  Archilochian 
school;  dramatic  in  the  plays  of  Aristophanes;  didactic  in  the 
Silli;29  but,  excepting  the  lyrical  satire,  always  in  some  form 
of  burlesque,  and  chiefly  that  of  parody,  either  of  form  or  of 
subject-matter. 

While  the  Old  Comedy  of  the  Greeks  may  have  influenced 
Lucilius  and  have  given  a  dramatic  touch  to  the  work  of 
Horace,  yet,  in  the  main,  Greek  satire  was  without  influence 
on  the  Romans.  The  burlesque  and  indirect  method  of  the 
Greeks  was  quite  distinct  from  the  direct  and  individual  satire 
of  the  Latin  writers.  Very  little  of  this  burlesque  satire  sur- 
vived till  the  Renaissance,  and  the  Latin  type  became  the 
model  for  extensive  imitation. 

The  burlesque  method,  however,  is  perennial.  It  was 
largely  prevalent  in  the  Middle  Ages,  when  some  of  the  Greek 
burlesque  satire  was  paralleled — though  without  a  trace  of 
classical  influence.  At  this  period  parody  was  frequent,  and 
obeyed  the  law  of  its  being  in  satirizing  the  prevailing  genres. 
Parodies  of  the  Chansons  des  Gestes  were  abundant.27  One 
mock-heroic  parody  of  the  Romance  of  Chivalry  satirized  the 
Flemish  burgers.28  Another,  one  of  the  Dit  d'aventures,  of 

29  See  Flogel,  2,  17  f. 

v    2T  See  Lenient,  La  Satire  en  France  au  Moyen  Age,  Ch.  VII. 
28  Schneegans,  p.  88. 


> 


26 

the  thirteenth  century,  is  a  grotesque  Satire  on  the  romance  of 
adventure;29  and  Chaucer's  own  Sir  Thopas30  is  of  this  type. 

Here,  too,  must  at  least  be  mentioned  the  Beast-Epic  of  the 
Middle  Ages  —  a  form  which,  if  not  truly  parodic  in  its  nature, 
employs  the  indirect  satirical  method,  and  so  connects  itself 
with  the  satiric  allegory  and  the  mock-heroic.  This,  one  of 
the  most  important  and  characteristic  satirical  forms  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  rises  at  its  best  into  the  vast  Roman  de  Renart, 
in  which,  with  its  companion  pieces,  is  concentrated  the  satirical 
genius  of  its  age.  In  its  allegorical  form  this  beast-epic  prob- 
ably satirizes  feudal  society,  and  so  is  closely  connected  with 
the  supposedly  satiric  beast-fables,  such  as  those  of  Marie  de 
France.  Concerning  the  satirical  import  of  the  Roman  de 
Renart  and  its  analogues,  various  opinions  are  advanced  — 
some  critics  even  maintaining  that  the  story  has  no  double 
meaning  at  all.  The  weight  of  opinion,  however,  distinctly 
favors  the  affirmative.31 

The  Roman  de  Renart  is  not  a  mock-heroic  in  the  ordinary 
sense,  nor  is  it  truly  parodic,  since  it  is  quite  innocent  of  any 
attempt  to  ridicule  the  epic  genre.  This  fact,  as  well  as  its 
allegoric  form,  sharply  differentiate  it  from  the  Batrochomyo- 
machia,  which,  though  a  beast-epic,  has  no  double  meaning. 
The  Roman,  finally,  with  its  series  of  disconnected  adventures, 
lacks  the  heroic  diction,  and  the  high  burlesque  and  machinery, 
of  the  true  Mock-Epic.  It  is  interesting  to  see  both  the  clas- 
sical and  the  medieval  beast-epic  combined  in  the  Froschmeu- 
seler  of  Rollenhagen,  the  German  satirist  (1595). 

The  medieval  beast-epic  is  in  itself  a  vast  satirical  genre. 
According  to  Lenient,  the  cycle  of  Reynard  alone  comprises 
over  118,000  lines  —  beginning  with  the  Latin  poems  of  the 
eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries  and  culminating  in  the  Renart 
le  Contrefait,  about  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century.  But 

1     s  See  Lenient,  pp.  129-30;  Schneegans,  p.  93  f. 
'  "See  infra,  p.  118. 

\  -  n  See  Thorns,   The  History  of  Reynard  the  Fox,  Percy   Soc.   Pub.,  Vol.      V 
12;  Wolff,  Reinke  de  Vos  und  Satirisch-didaktische  Dichtung;  Lenient,  p. 
131  f  .  ;  de  Julleville,  Histoire  de  la  Lungue  et  de  la  Lit.  frangaise,  Tome  II, 
2,  pp.  14-55. 


27 

there  is  no  end  to  these  beast-epics.  Through  Italy,  Spain,  and 
Germany  the  genre  spread  itself,  being  finally  galvanized  into 
activity  by  Goethe  himself.  There  is  here  no  place  in  which  ade- 
quately to  trace  its  history ;  for,  while  so  vigorous  on  the  Con- 
tinent, it  did  not  appear  in  England — excepting,  of  course, 
Caxton's  prose  translation — until  the  appearance  of  Spenser's 
Mother  Hubberd's  Tale.31*  A  full  treatment  of  the  beast-epic 
would  be  in  place  only  in  connection  with  Elizabethan  satire. 
Closely  related  to  the  beast-epic  is  another  allegorical  form, 
the  Beast-Fable,  in  prose  and  in  verse.  The  fable  is  not  neces- 
sarily satirical;  indeed  it  may  be  doubted  whether  the  true 
fable  is  ever  satirical.  From  its  origin  in  the  Hindoo  Pantcha 
Tantra,  through  its  peregrinations  in  the  Arabic,  Persian, 
Hebrew,  to  the  Greek  ^Esop,  the  Latin  Phaedrus,  and  a  host 
of  other  ancient  fabulists,  it  was  moralistic  and  didactic. 
Under  medieval  influences  it  became  satirical.  The  greatest 
of  medieval  verse- fabulists,  Marie  de  France,  was  certainly 
a  pungent  satirist:  the  beast  in  her  fables  always  concealed 
a  man.  And  then  follows  the  modern  and  almost  innumera- 
ble group,  with  La  Fontaine,  the  inimitable  master,  forever  at 
their  head — chiefly  satirists  pure  and  simple ;  though  the  Ger- 
man Lessing  reverted  to  what  he  considered  the  pure  and  orig- 
inal yEsopic  type  of  sheer  didacticism.  But  the  Fable  is  also 
in  itself  a  distinct  genre,  and  far  too  vast  a  subject  for  dis- 
cussion here.  A  host  of  commentators,  Lessing,  Deslong- 
champs,  Fischer,  Taine,  have  treated  it  from  various  points  of 
view.  LaFontaine's  influence  on  the  verse-Fable  of  the 
Georgian  era  in  England  was  incalculable  and,  should  we  con- 
sider that  age  and  that  genre,  an  elaborate  discussion  of  the 
origin  and  history  of  the  Fable  would  be  necessary.  Just 
here,  however,  such  a  treatment  would  be  superfluous.  Robert 
Henryson,  the  Scotchman,  the  only  satirical  verse-fabulist  in- 
cluded in  our  era,32  is  satirical  in  but  one  or  two  of  his  famous 

3111  That  early  fabliau^The  Fox  and  the  Wolf,  and  the  Nun's  Priest's 
Tale  of  Chaucer,  while  based  on  the  beast-epic,  do  not  reach  "  epic " 
proportions. 

82  The  work  of  Marie  de  France  does  not  properly  belong  to  the  history 
of  English  satire ;  see  Lenient,  pp.  92-6. 


28 

beast-Fables;  and  these  will  be  considered  in  their  chronolog- 
ical order.33 

The  satiric  Allegory  might  perhaps  be  termed  a  parodic, 
hence  a  burlesque,  form;  but  in  no  true  sense,  for  here  the 
satirical  intent  never  concerns  the  allegorical  form  itself. 
Moreover,  the  satiric  Allegory  is  at  best  a  rare  species,  and 
certainly  could  not  assume  the  dignity  of  a  genre.  Nigellus 
Wireker's  Speculum  Stultorum34  is  certainly  an  Allegory,  and 
satirical,  yet  of  a  kind  altogether  different  from  such  an  Alle- 
gory as  Jean  de  Meung's  Roman  de  la  Rose.  The  Vision  of 
Piers  Plowman™  cannot  be  called  truly  satirical,  since  in  it 
satire  is  subordinate  to  didacticism.  But  Chaucer's  House  of 
Fame36  is  both  an  Allegory  and  a  Satire,36a  and  so  must  stand 
as  the  supreme  representative  in  English  of  the  satiric  Allegory 
in  verse. 

However,  in  not  one  of  these  cases  is  the  allegoric  form 
itself  the  object  of  ridicule;  hence  the  product  is  in  no  sense 
parodic.  The  allegorical  form  is  merely  a  vehicle,  usually  a 
heavy  and  cumbersome  one,  for  satirical  subject-matter. 

Of  the  two  methods  employed  by  the  Satire,  we  have  seen 
that  the  first,  the  direct  method,  is  best  illustrated  by  the  classi- 
cal Latin  Satire;  the  second  by  the  different  varieties  of  the 
Mock-Heroic.  Obviously,  these  two  methods  are  often  com- 
bined. The  burlesque  appears  even  in  the  classical  Satire; 
the  direct  address  even  in  the  Mock-Heroic,  when  the  bur- 
lesque method  is  not  well  sustained.  The  abandonment  of 
the  indirect  or  burlesque  form  produces  the  effect  of  direct 
satire.  In  such  a  case,  as  at  times  in  Butler's  Hudibras  and 
very  often  in  Byron's  Don  Juan,  there  is  no  real  characteriza- 
tion. The  character  is  merely  a  mouth-piece  for  the  direct 
satire  of  the  author. 

We  have  now  described  and  illustrated  the  two  methods 

83  See  infra,  p.  134. 
34  See  infra,  p.  43. 
85  See  infra,  p.  70. 
88  See  infra,  p.  114. 

86a  This  still  remains  true,  even  though  neither  the  allegory  nor  the 
satire  be  held  to  bear  any  personal  application  to  Chaucer. 


29 

employed  by  the  Satire,  and  have  indicated  the  relation  of  this 
genre  to  those  kindred  and  subordinate  genres,  the  Epigram, 
the  Beast-Epic,  the  Beast-Fable,  and  the  satiric  Allegory.  It 
still  remains  to  carry  out  the  fourth  and  final  part  of  the  pro- 
gram outlined  on  page  6,  namely,  to  distinguish  the  Satire 
from  all  other  genres,  and  to  describe  its  different  varieties. 

IV 

With  these  methods  classified,  and  the  Satire  distinguished 
from  minor  satirical  poetry  that  partakes  of  the  nature  of  other 
genres,  it  now  becomes  merely  a  question  of  the  tone  and  spirit 
characterizing  any  production  under  discussion  as  to  whether 
or  not  it  shall  rank  as  a  member  of  the  professed  genre  of  the 
Satire.  For  this  purpose  we  have  attempted  to  describe  the 
nature  of  that  satirical  spirit  that  must  give  its  tone  to  every 
true  Satire.  The  Satire  in  the  direct  method  always  tends 
toward  didacticism  on  the  one  hand  and  invective  on  the  other. 
Many  such  poems,  bearing  the  name  of  Satire,  are  really  either 
didactic  verse  or  mere  invective.  Many  other  poems,  with 
every  characteristic  of  the  genuine  Satire,  go  under  other 
names :  such  are,  for  instance,  the  Epistles  of  Pope.  The 
mere  name  "  Satire  "  is  significant  as  usually  indicating  a  con- 
scious imitation  of  the  classical  Latin  Satires ;  but  apart  from 
this  it  may  mean  nothing  at  all.  Such  being  the  case,  we 
must  ascertain  the  real  nature  of  the  Satire — its  tone,  subject- 
matter,  form,  and  purpose — and,  by  this  criterion,  reclassify 
our  material. 

After  the  Satire  has  been  set  apart  by  itself,  we  see  that  it 
differs,  in  a  very  significant  way,  from  all  other  genres  of 
poetry.  This  difference  does  not  lie  merely  in  the  fact  that 
any  genre  possesses  an  individuality  of  its  own,  and  that  each, 
including  the  Satire,  has  a  characteristic  tone  which  distin- 
guishes it  from  all  other  forms.  This  is  true  enough,  and  yet 
not  the  whole  truth ;  for  the  Satire,  in  a  very  essential  fashion, 
stands  by  itself,  apart  from  all  other  genres  of  poetry.  The 
distinction  is  fundamental: — the  Satire  is  destructive:  other 
genres  are  constructive ;  the  Satire  is  realistic ;  the  others  are 
idealistic.  All  other  genres  of  poetry  have  their  enthusiasm 


30 

and  faith,  their  elevated  diction,  their  more  or  less  attractive 
subject-matter.  The  Satire,  on  the  other  hand,  has  a  tone 
ironical  and  unenthusiastic,  a  diction  characteristically  prosaic, 
subject-matter  often  sordid,  sometimes  positively  ugly  and 
revolting]*  Hence  it  follows  that  the  Satire  stands  apart  from 
all  other  forms,  and  must  depend  largely  upon  its  style  to 
perpetuate  material  in  itself  more  or  less  ephemeral  and 
unattractive. 

Employing  methods  and  forms  so  various,  with  frequently 
so  little  of  organic  form  and  methodical  structure,  the  Satire, 
unlike  the  Ode,  the  Elegy,  the  Lyric,  etc.,  cannot  possibly  be 
classified  as  a  distinct  genre  of  an  individual  and  characteris- 
tic form.  Still,  we  can  differentiate  the  professed  Satire  from 
these  other  genres,  even  from  didactic  poetry  and  the  lesser 
parodic  forms.  This  done,  we  yet  find  a  great  mass  of  inter- 
esting material  that  remains  to  be  considered. 

This  material  is  roughly  divisible  into  four  more  or  less 
clearly  defined  groups.  Each  of  these  has  individual  charac- 
teristics, but  often  mingles  with  the  other  varieties. 
\  Personal  Satire,  in  which  the  primitive  satirical  spirit  finds 
expression,  and  which  gave  birth  to  all  other  kinds,  is  common 
to  every  age  and  literature.37  It  is  scarcely  a  variety  in  itself, 
for  it  easily  passes  into  its  kindred  kinds.  In  such  cases  the 
personalities  are  used  to  point  the  moral  and  adorn  the  tale  of 
social,  political,  or  literary  satire  ;38  but  the  personal  Satire,  as 
a  distinct  variety,  only  too  easily  becomes  invective,  the  prod- 
uct of  hatred  or  of  malice,  unrelieved  by  humor.  Such  invec- 
tive may  still  by  force  of  genius  be  lifted  into  the  domain  of 
literature,  as  for  instance,  the  vitriolic  sonnets  that  the  Floren- 
tine poet  Berni  hurled  at  the  head  of  his  crafty  enemy,  Pietro 
Aretino,  the  Venetian.  But  these  are  not  true  satire.  The 
interest  afforded  by  invectives  is  largely  antiquarian,  and  must 
depend  on  the  personality  of  the  contestants.  To  this  class 
belong  the  Greek  lyric  Satires,  since  their  poisoned  darts 

37  For  primitive  satire  among  the  Lapps  and  the  Greenlanders,  see  Flogel, 
I,  319-20. 

88  Such  is  usually  the  case  in  England  before  the  Renaissance ;  e.  g.,  the 
sirventes  against  King  John,  infra,  p.  48 ;  the  satire  against  Suffolk,  infra, 
p.  126  f. ;  against  Wolsey,  infra,  p.  149  f. 


31 

were  winged  solely  with  malice,  and  their  purely  personal 
attacks  voiced  no  general  need  or  desire.  Where  humor  is 
entirely  lacking,  where  malice  breathes  in  every  line,  there  is 
no  satire.  The  usual  result  of  rage  is  not  satire,  but  abuse. 

Something  universal  must  first  find  expression  through  this 
personal  element,  before  such  a  "  Satire  "  can  attain  a  high 
place  in  literature.  Berni's  magnificent  sonnet  is  literature, 
because  the  personality  of  Aretino  is  merged  in  the  poet's 
scorn  for  the  eternal  type  of  the  hypocrite.39  Ulrich  von 
Hutten  wrote  a  prose  Satire  called  Phalarismus  against  the 
infamous  Duke  Ulrich  of  Wurtemberg.  It  is  edged  with  vio- 
lent personal  rancor;  but  in  the  Duke,  Hutten,  with  infinite 
humor,  satirizes  the  eternal  type  of  the  tyrant.  Thus  the  dia- 
logue rises  into  great  literature  and,  more  narrowly,  into  the 
true  Satire.  Dryden's  Mac  Flecknoe  is  also  an  excellent  ex- 
ample. It  is  personal  in  its  target,  yet  Shadwell  represents 
the  eternal  poetaster.  Here  the  satirist's  personal  feeling 
toward  the  object  of  his  attack  is  lost  in  the  qualities  that  mark 
the  highest  type  of  satire — the  presence  of  the  ludicrous  andi 
the  possibility  of  a  broad  application.  The  Dunciad  is  great  ^ 
despite  many  bitter  and  foolish  personalities,  for  at  its  best  it 
corresponds  to  Mac  Flecknoe.  It  has  humor  as  well  as  wit; 
and  where  there  is  true  personal  satire,  there  must  be  laugh- 
ter. This  laughter  may  be  scornful  and  contemptuous  enough, 
as  in  the  Satires  of  Swift,  but  the  satirist's  attitude  must  be  ^0 
one  of  amused  superiority.  Personal  malice  there  may  be,  /  \  \ 
but  it  must  not  dominate  the  tone.  The  satirist  may  hold  his 
enemy  up  to  public  ridicule,  may  caricature  him,  but  he  must 
do  this  with  a  sufficient  sense  of  the  ludicrous. 

<y'The  political  Satire  is  essentially  a  product  of  free  political  /  j 
conditions/~an3  may  exist  apart  from  any  other  variety. 
Scarcely  existent  in  the  literature  of  Rome,  hardly  more  so  in 
that  of  Italy  and  of  Spain,  only  to  a  limited  extent  in  that  of 
France,  the  political  Satire  is  characteristically  English.40  It 
is  obvious  that  in  periods  of  revolution,  of  change  and  stress, 

39  So  with  Skelton's  satire  against  Wolsey,  who  typifies  the  tyrant  and 
royal  favorite;  see  infra,  p.  152  f. 

40  It  begins  early,  and  never  dies ;  see  infra,  passim,  and  especially  ch.  IV.    / 


ft 


32 

the  political  Satire  will  flourish.41  An  extensive  satirical  lit- 
erature has  accompanied  every  great  political  revolution  of 
modern  times.42  Such  satire  has  been  a  growth  as  the  people 
have  gained  in  ability  to  govern  and  to  express  themselves. 
Lampoons,  squibs,  political  ballads,  furnish  the  more  popular 
and  degenerate  dress  of  the  spirit  that  occasionally  attains  such 
expression  in  literature  as  Dry  den's  Absalom  and  Achitophel. 

Political  satire  is  essentially  ephemeral.  Its  illustrations  are 
drawn  from  transient  conditions ;  its  localisms  in  time  become 
obscure  and  lose  their  pristine  flavor.  This  evaporating  proc- 
ess may  at  last  leave  the  political  Satire  a  lifeless  thing,  of 
interest  only  to  the  special  student.  But  however  ephemeral, 
it  is  in  its  day  by  far  the  most  effective  variety  of  its  genre. 
The  political  satirist  appeals  to  the  heart  of  the  people  and 
can  be  at  once  both  popular  writer  and  literary  artist. 

The  personalities  characterizing  this  variety  show  its  love 
for  the  argument  ad  hominem.  It  points  its  moral  by  means 
of  some  familiar  name,  and  like  the  personal  Satire  is  apt  to 
utilize  invective.43  Though  its  prosaic  material  offer  little  for 
the  fancy  to  play  upon,  it  may  still  become  great  literature, 
as  in  the  masterpiece  of  Dryden. 

*,  The  most  characteristic  and  formal,  yet  perhaps  the  least 
effective  variety,  is  the  Moral  and  Social  Satire.  It  rises  into 
greatness  in  the  work  of  a  Horace  or  of  a  Pope,  yet  the  horde 
of  satirical  poetasters  who  exercise  themselves  on  this  social 
material,  are  terribly  fond  of  inane  generalization,  didacticism, 
and  dullness.44  These  small  aspirants  have  wandered  off  into 
mere  generalities  and  attacked  in  vague  meaningless  terms 
the  follies  and  crimes  common  to  every  age.45  Certainly  this 
is  one  way  of  gaining  "  universality."  Such  satirists  attain 

41  Did  it  originate  with  ^Esop's  fable  of  King  Stork  and  King  Log,  which 
he  told  to  those  Athenians  who  resented  the  tyranny  of  Peisistratos  ? 

48  The  great  satirists  of  the  Reformation,  such  as  Murner,  Luther,  Hutten, 
Fischart,  Lyndsay,  and  Buchanan,  were  necessarily  political  to  a  certain 
.  extent,  where  the  question  of  the  Pope's  temporal  sovereignty  and  political 
influence  was  concerned. 

4SE.  g.,  the  politico-personal  Satires  of  Skelton,  see  infra,  p.  149  f. 

44  Only  too  prevalent  in  medieval  England ;  see  infra,  passim. 

45  Such    generalized    subject-matter    forms    what    has    aptly    been    termed 
"  satirical  commonplace." 


33 

the  universal  well  enough,  but  through  lack  of  imagination, 
fail  to  re-embody  it  in  the  concrete  material  afforded  by  the 
characteristic  life  of  their  own  times. 

The  classical  Latin  Satire,  though  not  lacking  in  personali- 
ties and  in  literary  elements,  is  still  of  this  general  type.46 
It  has  served  as  a  model  for  all  subsequent  satire  of  its  kind, 
and  we  find  everywhere  the  Social  Satire  betraying  the  great- 
est classical  influence,  the  most  rigorous  form.  When  genu- 
ine and  indigenous,  it  is  always  the  product  of  a  highly  organ- 
ized and  complex  society,  in  a  time  of  peace.  Such  a  society 
has  both  desire  and  leisure  to  study  itself.  This  highly  sophis- 
ticated and  self-consciou^jvarieJy^jiL-lhe  Satire  is  both  the 
result  and  the  mirror  of  these  conditions. 

*)  But  the  Satire  on  literary  subjects  is  perhaps  an  even  more 
sophisticated  variety.47  Existing  side  by  side  with  the  Moral 
and  Social  Satire,  it  is  often  absorbed  into  these  more  compre- 
hensive types.  Really  beginning  with  Aristophanes,  it  is  con- 
tinued by  Horace.  Juvenal,  too,  amuses  himself  with  literary 
pretenders ;  and  since  his  time,  the  Satire  on  literary  themes 
has  furnished  a  play-ground  for  every  writer  of  the  formal 
Satire.  It  has  proved  a  handy  and  effective  weapon  in  liter- 
ary quarrels,  and  under  these  conditions  has  usually  flourished ; 
as  witness  Mac  Flecknoe,  The  Dunciad,  English  Bards  and 
Scotch  Reviewers,  to  mention  only  a  few  representative  poems 
of  a  type  whose  exemplars  are  legion. 

A  pleasant  sub-variety  of  this  purely  literary  Satire  is  that 
of  what  might  be  termed  the  "  Parnassian "  poems.  This 
fashion  was  set  in  Italy  by  Cesare  Caporali,  with  his  Viaggio 
in  Parnaso,  and  Vita  de  Meccenate ;  and  continued  by  Bocca- 
lini  in  his  Ragguagli  di  Parnaso.  In  Spain,  Cervantes  fol- 
lowed with  his  elaborate  Viaje  al  Parnaso  (1615)  ;  while  in 
England  the  tradition  has  been  preserved  successively  by  Suck- 
ling, Wither,  Lady  Winchelsea,  Sheffield,  Swift,  and  Leigh 
Hunt.48  The  series  is  continued  in  America  with  Lowell's 
Fable  for  Critics. 

44  See  supra,  p.  1 5. 

'7  This  variety  is  very  rare  in  England  before  the  Renaissance. 
48  Goldsmith's   Retaliation,   though    its    subject-matter   is   somewhat   more 
inclusive,  really  belongs  to  this  class. 


34 

We  have  now,  however  inadequately,  finished  the  four  divi- 
sions of  the  analytical  program  outlined  on  page  6:  first, 
to  ascertain  the  nature  and  the  working  of  the  satirical  spirit; 
second,  to  distinguish  between  satire  in  prose  and  satire  in 
verse ;  third,  to  describe  the  two  methods  of  the  Satire  and  to 
indicate  the  relations  of  the  Satire  to  certain  minor  genres; 
and,  finally,  to  differentiate  the  Satire  from  all  other  genres 
of  poetry  and  to  set  forth  its  different  varieties.  It  still  re- 
mains to  be  seen  how  the  product  in  England  before  the 
Renaissance  bears  out  and  illustrates  the  foregoing  analysis. 


CHAPTER    II 
FROM  WALTER  MAP  TO  LANGLAND 

Absence  of  satire  in  Anglo-Saxon  poetry. — Possible  reasons  for  same. — 
Revival  of  literature  under  Henry  II. — Three  schools  of  satirical  verse : 
Goliardic  ;  Anglo-Norman  ;  Anglo-Latin. — The  sirvente. — The  Goliards. — 
Walter  Mapes. — Themes  and  methods  of  Goliardic  satire. — Anglo-Latin 
satire. — Apocalypsis  Goliae. — The  Confession  of  Golias. — Other  Goliardic 
Satires. — General  character  of  these  productions. — The  Speculum  Stul- 
torum. — Alexander  Neckham's  De  Vita  Monachorum. — John  of  Salisbury's 
Polycraticus ;  his  Entheticus. — Goliardic  satire  in  the  reign  of  King  John. — 
Anglo-Norman  sirventes  against  John. — Satires  in  the  reign  of  William 
II. — The  Barons'  War. — Richard  of  Cornwall. — A  Intel  Soth  sermun. — The 
Visions  of  Heaven  and  Hell. — The  XI  Pains  of  Hell. — Satire  under  Edward 
_I. — Social  satire. — The  Owl  and  the  Nightingale. — Attacks  on  the  clergy. — 
"The  friars. — The  Order  of  Fair  Ease. — The  Land  of  Cokaygne. — Political 
satire. — Robert  Manning's  Handlyng  Synne. — Richard  Rolle's  The  Pricke 
of  Conscience. — Satire  under  Edward  II. — Its  subject-matter. — A  Poem  on 
the  Times  of  Edward  II. — Rise  of  class-satire. — Causes  of  same. — Satires 
on  Piers  Gaveston. — Satire  under  Edward  III. — Satire  against  France. — 
Prophecy  of  John  of  Bridlington. — The  Vision  of  Piers  the  Plowman. — Its 
subject-matter. — Its  relation  to  the  Roman  de  la  Rose. — Its  allegorical 
form. — Its  various  methods. — Its  satire  against  abstractions ;  against 
classes. — Its  didactic  element. — Its  humor  and  realism. — Langland's  advance 
beyond  his  predecessors. 

I 

Neither  in  Anglo-Saxon  poetry  nor  in  the  Latin  writings  of 
the  Anglo-Saxon  period  can  we  find  a  trace  of  satire.  Pic- 
tures of  the  Last  Judgment,  debates  between  the  Body  and 
the  Soul,  sombre  invective  in  the  Blickling  homilies  and  in  the 
homilies  of  Wulfstan,  form  the  nearest  approach  to  the  satir- 
ical that  this  first  period  of  English  literature  has  to  offer  us. 
We  need  not  seek  far  for  the  reasons.  One  lies,  perhaps,  in 
the  serious  temper  of  a  race  lacking  in  humor  and  in  lightness 
of  touch ;  a  race,  too,  bound  by  heroic  traditions,  serious  and 
high  in  purpose ;  a  homogeneous  race,  finally,  and  a  society  in 
which  objects  for  satire  either  political,  literary,  or  social  were 
largely  wanting.  Even  the  ecclesiastical  body,  for  centuries 
afterwards  a  prime  object  of  attack,  while  by  no  means  im- 
maculate at  this  period,  had  still  not  sunk  into  the  corruption 

35 


36 

that  subsequently  rendered  it  the  target  for  universal  reproach ; 
and  social  and  political  conditions  in  general  were  certainly 
not  such  as  to  foster  satire  of  any  description. 

After  that  century  of  civil  war  following  the  Conquest,  a 
century  during  which  not  merely  literature  but  society  itself 
was  in  a  deplorable  condition,  there  came  an  intellectual  re- 
vival. The  Gallic  spirit  was  already  operating  beneficently 
on  the  sombre  and  exhausted  Saxon  genius.  Comparative 
leisure  and  peace  had  succeeded  the  unspeakable  ravages  of 
Stephen's  reign,  and  even  John's  political  follies  could  not 
prevent  a  renascence  of  literary  life  in  the  monasteries  and 
some  attention  to  contemporary  affairs  on  the  part  of  monastic 
writers.  At  this  period,  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century,  after 
the  establishment  of  the  universities  with  their  greater  atten- 
tion to  literature,  and  after  the  fusion  of  Saxon  and  Norman 
elements  in  the  nation  under  the  rule  of  Henry  the  Second, 
we  discern  the  first  trace  of  the  spirit  which  was  destined, 
almost  five  centuries  later,  to  find  its  consummate  expression 
in  the  masterpieces  of  Dry  den  and  of  Pope. 

The  first  impulse  came  from  abroad.  The  racial  effect  of 
the  Conquest  give  birth  to  English  satire :  it  made  a  hetero- 
geneous people ;  it  ^finally  directed  English  students  to  the 
University  of  Paris.  From  this  foreign  influence  sprang  the 
poetry  of  the  Goliards  and  of  the  Anglo-Latin  satirists  and 
epigrammatists. 

Throughout  the  first  two  centuries  of  its  history,  English 
satirical  poetry  divides  itself  into  three  principal  schools. 
During  the  twelfth  century  we  find  the  Goliardic  Latin  rhymes, 
the  Anglo-French  sirventes^  the  more  formal  satire  of  the 
Anglo-Latin  writers.  In  the  thirteenth  century,  the  Goliardic 
poetry  used  not  only  Latin,  but  Anglo-French  and  English 
as  its  vehicle;  the  sirvente  of  the  trouvere  and  troubadour 
passed  into  the  satirical  song  of  the  English  gleeman;  the 
Anglo-Latin  passed  into  the  nondescript  ecclesiastical  satire  in 
Latin,  in  Anglo-French,  and  in  English.  So  we  have  to  deal 
not  only  with  three  classes  but  with  three  languages. 

1  Not  strictly  Anglo-Norman,  but  referring  to  any  sirventes  written  either 
by  trouveres  or  by  troubadours  which  refer  to  England  or  to  English 
affairs. 


37 

The  sirvente2 — sometimes  called  the  sotte  chanson — origi- 
nated toward  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century,  perhaps  in 
Picardy,  but  soon  became  the  common  property  of  both  trou- 
veres  and  troubadours.  It  was  at  first  a  mere  personal  chal- 
lenge, often  outrageous  in  its  tone;  afterwards  it  became 
more  general.  But  it  was  always  daring,  witty,  satirical, 
varied  in  its  subject-matter,  and  abounding  in  personalities. 
Bertrand  de  Born,  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  troubadours,  was 
its  chief  exponent;  but  it  had  already  found  its  way  into  Eng- 
land shortly  after  the  Conquest.  It  was  essentially  lyrical: 
Beranger's  Songs  were  its  lineal  descendants.  Transplanted 
into  England,  the  sirvente  has  come  down  to  us  in  a  few  iso- 
lated examples  in  Anglo-French;  but  it  soon  left  its  Anglo- 
French  and  its  personalities  for  English  and  nationality ;  and, 
in  the  reign  of  Edward  I,  became  the  song  of  the  English  glee- 
men.  It  was  specific  and  definite  in  its  subject-matter,  hurled 
itself  at  kings  like  John  and  Henry  III,  then  at  the  Scotch; 
finally  turned  against  its  own  ancestral  people  and  ridiculed 
the  French  themselves.  The  comparatively  few  satirical  songs 
that  have  survived  merely  hint  at  the  vast  number  of  these 
light  and  winged  satirical  occasional  poems  that  must  have 
perished  while  scarcely  off  the  gleeman's  tongue.4 

Far  more  abundant  than  the  sirventes  is  the  Goliardic  prod- 
uct of  this  period.  The  term  "  Goliardic  "  is  usually  restricted 
to  Latin  rhyming  verse,  but  at  least  one  authority  would  in- 
clude poems  in  both  Anglo-French  and  English.5  Who  were 
the  "  Goliards "  ?  A  literary  question  more  difficult  could 
scarcely  be  raised.  In  the  great  age  of  the  University  of 
Paris,  clerks,  students,  scholars,  thronged  to  France.  They 
were  far-travelled  and  sharp  sighted;  satire  was  their  natural 
weapon.  Some  one  (was  it  Walter  Map,  the  Englishman?) 
began  the  rhyming  Latin  satirical  verse,  to  be  known  as 
"  Goliardic."  Critics  disagree  as  to  the  origin  of  the  name. 

2  Sirvente  comes  from  Latin  sermens,  by  allusion  to  the  suivant  d'armes 
charged  with  the  cartel  in  the  name  of  his  master. 

8  See  Lenient,  pp.  21-22. 

4  The  lyric  satire  of  the  sirvente  was  paralleled  by  the  political  and  per- 
sonal satire  in  the  songs  of  the  minnesingers  (c.  1200). 

0  See  Haessner,  Die  Goliardendichtung,  passim. 


38 

Who  impersonated  Bishop  Golias,  type  of  the  immoral  pre- 
late that  satirized  monachism,  women,  and  public  morals,  and 
praised  wine  and  song,  with  such  gusto  and  facility?  Was 
Bishop  Golias  one  man  or  a  thousand?  Did  the  name  derive 
from  gula,  the  gullet,  or  from  Goliath  of  Gath?  When  did 
this  peculiar  and  influential  form  of  verse  originate,  and 
where  ? 

France  was  probably  the  birthplace,  and  the  early  twelfth 
century  perhaps  the  time.6  The  genre  was  already  decaying 
when  it  passed  into  England,  carried  by  the  young  students 
from  Paris.  It  is  impossible  to  say  how  many  Goliardic 
songs  originated  in  France.  Goliardic  poetry  is  usually 
lacking  in  any  personal  or  local  allusions  that  may  stamp 
its  origin.  Of  the  poems  included  by  Wright  in  his  Latin 
Poems  Commonly  Attributed  to  Walter  Mapes,  some  were 
probably  of  French  authorship.  But  the  name  of  "  Walter 
Mapes  "  has  been  attached  to  Goliardic  poetry  by  the  tra- 
dition of  many  centuries.  The  variety  of  his  literary  ac- 
tivity, his  fame  as  a  wit,  his  known  hatred  of  the  Cis- 
tercians, may  have  foisted  upon  him  the  parentage  of  the 
whole  Goliardic  genre.  At  best,  he  was  the  author  of  but 
few  of  the  poems  ascribed  to  him — perhaps  of  none.  The 
two  elaborate  Goliardic  Satires  to  which  his  name  is  insepara- 
bly attached  will  here  be  treated  as  his,  however;  for  neither 
exact  time,  locality,  nor  authorship,  is  of  great  import  when 
considering  Goliardic  poetry.7 

This  Goliardic  satire  persists  in  England  through  the  later 
twelfth  century,  through  the  entire  thirteenth,  and  even  down 
to  the  reign  of  Edward  III.  At  first  written  exclusively  in 
rhyming  Latin  verse,  it  passes  into  Anglo-French ;  finally, 
with  an  effort  on  the  part  of  its  authors  to  popularize  it,  even 
into  English.  Its  most  characteristic  themes  are  the  decadence 
of  the  age,  the  immorality  of  the  ecclesiastical  orders,  and 
woman;  and  these  themes,  at  first  international,  develop  in 

9  Die  Goliardendichtung,  passim.  But  cf.  Chambers,  The  Mediaeval 
Stage,  Vol.  I,  p.  6 1,  who  gives  the  order  issued  by  Gautier  of  Sens  in  his 
Constitutiones  (913  A.  D.)  :  "  Statuimus  quod  clerici  ribaldi,  maxima  qui 
dicuntur  de  familia  Goliae  .  .  .  etc."  This  would  set  back  the  date  two 
hundred  years ! 

T  See  Haessner,  pp.  150-1. 


39 

England  distinctly  national  traits,  and  even  become  political. 
The  Goliards,  liberal  in  politics,  can  occasionally  speak  with  the 
freedom,  vigor,  and  bitterness  of  the  trouveres.  Their  method 
is  both  direct  and  dramatic;  their  tone  infinitely  varied.  In- 
dependent of  tradition,  without  classical  influences,  the  Goli- 
ardic  poetry  was  entirely  the  product  of  its  time. 

Clearly  distinct  from  this  Goliardic  satire,  but  also  indirectly 
emanating  from  the  University  of  Paris,  is  the  Anglo-Latin 
satire  of  the  twelfth  century.  This  passed,  as  did  the  trou- 
vere  and  the  Goliardic,  through  Anglo-French  into  Eng- 
lish. Beginning  about  1200  A.  D.  with  the  prose  works  of 
Walter  Map  and  others,  for  example  the  De  Nugis  Curialium, 
it  sprang  from  reformatory  tendencies  in  the  Church  itself. 
The  elaborate  compositions  of  Nigellus  Wireker,  John  of 
Salisbury,  and  Alexander  Neckham,  are  succeeded  in  the  fol- 
lowing century  by  a  mass  of  nondescript  satire  in  English, 
sometimes  by  monks,  perhaps  by  parish  priests.  The  subject- 
matter  is  frequently  ecclesiastical  or  social,  the  tone  severe,  the 
style  free  from  allusions  of  any  kind.  But  it  may  run  to  the 
opposite  extreme — if  we  include  The  Land  of  Cockaygne  and 
The  Order  of  Fair  Ease.  Indeed,  in  every  respect  its  range 
is  so  extensive,  its  product  so  often  almost  nondescript,  that 
its  ecclesiastical  authorship  and  academic  style  alone  serve  to 
distinguish  it  from  the  satirical  product  of  Goliards  and  of 
gleemen.  "' 

II 

That  order  of  Benedictine  monks,  which,  under  Augustine, 
converted  England  from  paganism,  had  long  since  declined 
from  its  pristine  spirituality  into  the  numberless  corruptions 
that  make  the  staple  theme  of  medieval  satire.  In  an  attempt 
to  reform  the  Benedictines,  about  1132  A.  D.,  several  new 
orders  were  introduced  into  England.  Among  these  orders 
were  the  Cistercians,  who  were  soon  to  become,  through  their 
extensive  wool  industry,  the  wealthiest  body  in  the  realm. 
But  not  half  a  century  passed  before  the  reformatory  impulse 
of  the  new  orders  was  exhausted,  and  they  themselves  had 
sunk  into  the  same  low  spiritual  condition  as  those  very  Bene- 
dictines whom  they  had  come  to  reform. 


40 

These  depraved  ecclesiastical  conditions  formed  a  favorite 
Goliardic  theme.  Among  these  Goliardic  compositions  are 
two,  as  has  been  said,  that  were  perhaps  the  actual  work  of 
Walter  Map.8  The  first  of  these  two  poems  is  the  Apocalypsis 
Golice*  an  elaborate  composition  of  over  four  hundred  lines 
in  rhyming  quatrains. 

Through  a  miraculous  revelation,  which  is  in  form  a 
parody10  of  the  Revelation  of  St.  John,  the  sins  of  the  clergy, 
from  pope  to  parish  priest,  are  revealed  to  the  poet.  The 
entire  hierarchy  is  summoned  before  the  Throne  of  Judgment. 
Pope,  Bishop,  Archdeacon,  Dean,  Abbot,  and  Monk,  are  in- 
fected with  vice — false  shepherds,  blind  leaders  of  Christ's 
flock!  The  poet's  epithets  are  of  unsparing  severity,  and  his 
rebuke  is  as  direct  and  overwhelming  as  any  that  could  well  be 
delivered.  A  more  severe  indictment  against  the  whole  eccle- 
siastical hierarchy  does  not  exist  in  the  satire  of  England.  The 
attack,  if  made  by  Walter  Map,  emanates  from  one  of  their 
own  order,  a  critic  who  knew  both  Church  and  world; 
not  a  cloistered  monk,  but  a  man  of  action.  The  satirist 
perhaps  feels  too  keenly  the  degradation  of  the  priesthood 
to  indulge  in  any  humor.  His  tone  is  throughout  bitterly 
severe,  so  much  so  as  to  become  invective  rather  than 
satire;  for  though  the  verse  at  times  gives  a  ludicrous  effect, 
there  is  no  intentional  burlesque,  and  the  frequent  word-plays 
are  not  to  raise  a  laugh,  but  to  carry  a  point. 

The  Confession  of  Golias,  though  in  subject-matter  largely 
identical  with  the  Apocalypse,  is  yet  in  form  and  tone  widely 
dissimilar.  The  Confession  is  burlesque  in  form,11  and  at  first 
richly  humorous  in  tone,  but  finally  didactic.12  Bishop  Golias, 
type  of  the  immoral  prelate,  confesses  his  various  enormities 
to  the  Bishop  of  Coventry.  In  the  course  of  this  "  heart  to 

8  Only  perhaps ;  there  is  reason  to  believe  The  Confession,  at  least,  of 
Italian  origin.  See  Symonds,  Wine,  Women  and  Song,  p.  60. 

'  The  Latin  Poems  Commonly  Attributed  to  Walter  Mapes,  ed.  Wright, 
Camden  Soc.  Pub.,  Vol.  16,  pp.  1-20. 

10  See  supra,  p.  25. 

11  See  supra,  p.  18  f. 

12  The  Latin  Poems,  etc.,  p.  71  f. 


41 

heart  talk,"  he  admits  that  he  loves  <the  tavern  and  the  wine- 
cup: 

"  Meum  est  propositum  in  taberna  mori, 

Vinum  sit  appositum  morientis  ori; 

Ut  dicant  cum  venerint  angelorum  chori, 

Deus  sit  propitius  huic  potatori  " — 

but  he  professes  himself  sincerely  repentant  and  promises  to 
reform.  Certain  parts  of  this  burlesque  confession  have  been 
adopted  as  a  drinking  song  of  universal  celebrity,  and  have 
led  to  the  wholly  unwarranted  supposition  that  the  author  of 
the  poem  was  himself  a  toper. 

Among  these  supposedly  English  Goliardic  poems  are  many 
of  a  very  general  character,  such  as  lugubrious  wails  over  the 
depravity  of  the  age,  the  state  of  the  church,  and  the  approach- 
ing destruction  of  the  universe.  Of  this  kind  are  the  De 
Mundi  Miseria™  and  the  Prophecy  of  Golias,1*  which  is  a 
general  call  to  repentance ;  while  the  medieval  attitude  toward 
woman  finds  expression  in  a  violent  attack  on  the  sex  entitled 
Golias  de  Conjuge  non  Ducenda.15  This  unmitigated  libel 
rehearses,  in  a  fashion  both  gross  and  dull,  those  perennial 
charges  that  have  been  the  property  of  the  ages  since  the  time 
of  Simonides.  This  particular  poem,  however,  seems  to  have 
had  a  certain  popularity ;  and  it  exercised  some  subsequent 
influence,  as  is  witnessed  by  an  English  paraphrase  of  the 
fifteenth  century.16 

But  Goliardic  humor,  though  lacking  in  these  more  serious 
attempts,  is  at  times  exuberant.  In  several  poems  on  the  uni- 
versal sovereignty  of  money,  a  humorous  perception  of  social 
incongruities  finds  expression  in  very  effective,  albeit  rather 
bitter,  irony.  Such  is  the  De  Cruce  Denarii,*1  in  which  is 
celebrated  the  omnipotence  of  the  penny  and  the  magical 
transformations  effected  by  that  modern  worker  of  miracles. 
Nothing  more  effective  than  the  Penny,  cries  the  poet,  in  the 

13  ibid.,  p.  i49f. 

14  ibid.,  p.  52  f. 

16  Latin  Poems  Commonly  Attributed  to  Walter  Mapes,  p.  77  f. 
16  Ibid.,  p.  295  f. 
"  Ibid.,  p.  223  f. 


42 

palace  or  the  consistory  courts!  And  this,  too,  is  the  com- 
plaint of  the  author  of  De  Nummo,™  which  is  of  the  same 
type,  and  was  afterwards  imitated  in  French,  Latin,  English, 
and  Scotch ;  becoming,  with  others  of  its  class,  the  founder  of 
a  great  family  of  such  poems  throughout  medieval  Western 
Europe. 

It  could  not  have  been  at  a  much  later  date  that  some  "  Goli- 
ard  "  expressed  himself  vigorously  on  the  subject  of  a  French 
education  and  French  vices.19  "  Those  barons  who  send  their 
sons  to  be  educated  in  France,"  declares  the  satirist,  "  are 
responsible  for  the  introduction  of  foreign  vices  into  Eng- 
land." Another,  against  "The  Social  Parasites"  (the  "ri- 
balds"),20 addresses  itself  most  seriously  to  Bishops  and 
Abbots,  warning  them  to  be  liberal,  but  not  to  squander  their 
wealth  on  these  parasites  who  thrive  upon  the  life-blood  of 
society.  Illustrated  by  Biblical  examples,  but  largely  unquot- 
able, the  poem  hints  at  unspeakable  conditions  of  society — as 
do  others  of  its  kind.  Still  another,  A  General  Satire  on  all 
Classes  of  Society,2*  concerns  itself  with  subject-matter  less 
objectionable,  and  hits  chiefly  at  the  condition  of  the  Church. 
Its  frequent  intermixture  of  Norman  words  would  seem  to 
indicate  an  attempt  to  popularize  the  Goliardic  satire. 

Still  more  humorous,  though  unfortunately  highly  indecor- 
ous, are  the  two  burlesque  poems  that  purport  to  be  accounts 
of  sacerdotal  convocations  in  which  the  monks  have  assembled 
to  discuss  the  decree  of  Pope  Innocent  III  (1215),  condemn- 
ing the  wives  or  concubines  of  the  clergy.22  These  are  fairly 
good  examples  of  an  undoubtedly  humorous,  though  rather 
crude,  form  of  burlesque.23 

These  various  Goliardic  poems,  with  a  multitude  of  others 
of  like  form  and  tenor,  all  written  at  about  the  same  period 
(1175-1250?),  are  characteristically  devoid  of  personal  and 

18  Ibid.,  p.  226. 

19  Anecdota  Literaria,  ed.  Wright,  pp.  38-9. 

20  Ibid.,  pp.  40-2. 

21  Anecdota  Literaria,  pp.  43-4. 

23  Latin  Poems  Commonly  Attributed  to  Walter  Mapes,  pp.  171,  180. 
28  See  supra,  p.  18  f. 


43 

local  allusions  that  might  enable  us  to  fix  their  time  and  place 
with  any  degree  of  certainty.  Though  without  individuality, 
they  probably  represent  the  attitude  of  a  large  body  of  thought- 
ful people  of  their  period.  This  fact  renders  them  in  some 
degree  a  genuinely  popular  expression,  evoked  by  existing 
conditions,  whether  in  England  or  on  the  Continent. 

Far  more  academic  than  the  Goliardic  satire  in  both  form 
and  treatment  is  the  Speculum  Stultorum  of  Nigellus  Wireker 
(fl.  1190),  precentor  in  the  Benedictine  Monastery  at  Canter- 
bury, and  friend  and  protege  of  that  able  but  mischievous  pre- 
late, William  de  Longchamps,  Bishop  of  Ely.  In  this  instance 
the  criticism  comes  entirely  from  within  the  fold,  and  shows 
the  monastic  bodies  as  they  seemed  to  one  of  their  own  more 
faithful  and  spiritual  brethren.  The  poem  is  also  the  product 
of  that  purer  Latin  style  and  love  for  classical  imitation, 
which,  introduced  into  England  by  the  Normans,  resulted  in 
an  interesting  school  of  satirists  and  epigrammatists  during 
the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries. 

In  the  prologue,  addressed  to  his  friend  William,  Nigellus 
states  his  purpose  in  writing  and  his  conception  of  the  nature 
of  satire.  His  motive  for  writing  is  that  professed  by  the 
satirist  in  every  age;  but  his  idea  concerning  the  form  and 
treatment  of  the  Satire  is  strangely  Horatian.  "  There  are 
to-day  in  the  world,"  he  says,  "  many  hypocrites ;  there  is  no 
art  or  order  in  which  there  is  not  some  deceit.  Professors 
of  the  arts  simulate  knowledge;  the  religious  orders  simulate 
virtue."  Recognizing  these  unfortunate  conditions,  he  pro- 
poses to  reform  by  jocosity  what  cannot  be  effected  by  rough 
rebuke ;  "  for  many  are  the  diseases  which  yield  more  readily 
to  unguents  than  to  caustic."24  True  enough  for  a  general 
theory  of  satire;  but  the  good  monk  was  wrong  in  thinking 
that  his  unguents  could  effect  what  only  the  caustic  method 
of  wholesale  disestablishment  accomplished  some  three  cen- 
turies later. 

M  The  Anglo-Latin   Satirical  Poets   and  Epigrammatists   of   the    Twelfth 
Century,  ed.  Wright,  Vol.  I,  pp.  3-145. 


44 

In  this  same  prologue  the  monastic  satirist  gravely  explains 
the  allegorical  features  of  his  work,  as  if  apologizing  for  its 
delightful  humor  by  emphasizing  its  reformatory  and  didac- 
tic purpose.  Fortunately  his  explanations  of  the  ass,  the  tail, 
the  prescription  in  its  fragile  glass  bottles,  are  confined  to  the 
prologue,  and  do  not  affect  the  humor  or  the  conduct  of 
the  story,  which  would  be  sufficiently  effective  in  itself  with- 
out the  allegory. 

Burnellus,  the  ass,  represents  the  whole  monastic  body, 
greedy  for  gain,  eager  for  change.  Burnellus  ardently  desires 
a  longer  tail.  He  consults  the  physician  Galen,  who,  after 
expostulating  with  him  upon  the  folly  of  his  desire,  gives  him 
an  absurd  prescription  that  is  to  be  filled  at  Salerno  and 
brought  back  in  glass  bottles — typifying  thereby,  as  we  have 
learned  from  the  prologue,  the  monk  who  runs  after  vanities 
both  costly  and  frail.  On  his  journey  toward  Salerno,  Bur- 
nellus is  cheated  by  a  London  merchant,  and  on  his  return  trip 
meets  with  a  variety  of  mishaps  that  arise  mainly  from  the 
malice  of  monks  of  other  orders.  (Burnellus  is  a  Benedic- 
tine.) A  Cistercian  brother,  near  Lyons,  sets  upon  him  four 
mastiffs  who  bite  off  half  of  his  tail  and  break  his  medicine 
bottles;  but  the  final  issue  is  disastrous  for  the  Cistercian, 
since  the  ass  incontinently  and  gleefully  drowns  him  in  the 
Rhone,  singing  upon  his  demise  a  Canticle  of  victory: 

"  Cantemus,   socii !    f estum  celebremus,   aselli ! 
Vocibus  et  votis  organa  nostra  sonent." 

Burnellus,  unwilling  to  return  home  with  his  mangled  tail, 
proceeds  to  the  University  of  Paris.  He  is  ready  to  study 
and  does  not  fear  the  rod.  But,  after  spending  seven  years 
in  close  application,  he  cannot  even  remember  the  name  of  the 
city  where  he  has  been  toiling;  so  he  leaves  in  disgust  and 
resolves  to  enter  a  monastic  order.  After  this  resolution  is 
formed,  he  reviews  without  satisfaction  the  various  religious 
bodies,  with  rather  severe  criticism  of  each.  The  vices  both 
of  monks  and  nuns  are  dwelt  upon — Cistercians,  White  Friars, 
Templars,  Carthusians,  Regular  Canons,  and  others.  The  ass 


45 

is  disgusted  with  all,  and  determines  to  form  a  new  order  for 
himself  which  shall  unite  the  best  characteristics  of  the  others. 
He  meets  Galen,  describes  his  plan,  and  invites  his  cooperation. 
But  at  this  juncture  Bernardus,  his  old  master,  appears  on  the 
scene,  claims  his  property,  and  leads  Burnellus  away  to  his 
original  condition  of  servitude. 

In  this  form  we  find  a  singular  union  of  burlesque  and 
allegory,  ordinarily  two  most  incompatible  elements.  On  the 
face  of  it,  the  story  is  merely  a  burlesque  on  monachism  and 
on  university  life  at  Paris.  The  general  idea  of  the  ass  as  a 
representative  of  the  monastic  body ;  and,  in  particular,  Galen's 
absurd  prescription  for  lengthening  Burnellus7  tail,  and  Bur- 
nellus' song  of  triumph  over  the  drowned  Cistercian  brother, 
are  all  examples  of  burlesque.  But  best  of  all  is  the  plan  for 
the  order  of  monks,  which  the  ass  proposes  to  establish,  to  be 
known  as  the  "  novus  ordo  Burnelli." 

"  I  shall  found  a  new  order," 25  he  says,  "  that  shall  per- 
petuate my  name.  My  order  shall  take  the  best  from  all  the 
others.  From  the  Templars  we  can  learn  to  use  softly-step- 
ping horses,  that  my  monks  may  be  pleasantly  seated ;  but  the 
right  to  lie  at  all  seasons,  also  peculiar  to  the  Templars,  I 
shall  deny  to  every  one  but  myself.  The  monks  of  Cluny  will 
teach  me  how  to  enjoy  rich  feasts  on  the  six  holidays  of  the 
week — the  other  brethren  can  live  on  my  scraps.  I  commend 
the  Gradimontanes  for  their  excessive  loquacity,  and  shall 
imitate  them;  and  the  Carthusian  brethren  ought  to  be  fol- 
lowed in  certain  of  their  customs.  Let  us  also  imitate  the 
Black  Canons  in  their  habit  of  eating  flesh,  lest  we  be  termed 
hypocritical ;  and  the  Praemonstratenes  will  teach  us  how  to 
wear  soft  clothing.  From  other  orders  we  learn  how  desira- 
ble is  a  female  companion;  for  this,  the  first  order  was  insti- 
tuted in  Paradise,  and  should  be  perpetually  maintained." 
And  so  on.  But  apart  from  these  burlesque  features  are  the 
allegorical  elements  as  Wireker  expounds  them  in  his  pro- 
logue. In  all  this  allegory,  however,  are  no  personified  ab- 

26 "  The  Order  of  the  Ass  "  later  became  common  satirical  property  on 
the  Continent. 


46 

stractions  such  as  became  popularized  through  the  Roman  de 
la  Rose  less  than  a  century  later.  The  two  have  absolutely 
nothing  in  common,  though,  as  we  shall  see  later,  the  Roman 
de  la  Rose  was  not  without  its  influence  on  English  satire. 

The  Speculum  Stultorum,  with  its  attack  on  ecclesiastical 
corruption,  and  its  incidental  satire  on  university  life,  seems 
to  be  the  work  of  a  man  who  knew  his  material  at  first  hand. 
Though  obviously  an  academic  product,  Wireker's  Satire  has 
the  vitality  and  significance  of  a  work  evoked  by  contemporary 
needs,  and  having  an  earnest  purpose.  It  is  written  in  fairly 
good  Latin  elegiac  verse  and  is,  as  has  been  said,  a  product 
of  the  purer  Latin  style  introduced  into  England  by  the  Nor- 
mans. That  it  is  deficient  in  the  higher  qualities  of  poetry 
goes  almost,  without  saying ;  yet  its  rich  humor  of  theme  and 
expression  may  well  atone  for  its  lack  of  poetical  merit.  The 
"  Novus  Ordo  Burnelli  "  soon  became  common  satirical  prop- 
erty and  exercised  a  perceptible  effect  on  subsequent  satire. 
It  forms,  in  fact,  the  first  member  of  a  long  series  of  "  fool 
Satires,"  which  were  to  appear  again  centuries  later  in  the 
work  of  Barclay  and  the  less  elaborate  efforts  of  Lydgate, 
Skelton,  and  others. 

But  Nigellus  Wireker,  though  by  far  the  greatest,  was  not 
the  only  Anglo-Latin  satirist.  His  contemporary,  Alexander 
Neckham  (1157-1217),  Abbot  of  Cirencester,  besides  his 
elaborate  scientific  treatises  in  prose  and  in  verse,  and  other 
works,  wrote  in  elegiac  verse  his  De  Vita  M  onachorum.29 
Admonitory,  serious  in  intent,  in  no  true  sense  satirical,  this 
elaborate  didactic  poem  exhorts  the  monks  to  lead  pure  lives, 
upbraids  the  rich  and  powerful,  bitterly  bewails  the  decadence 
of  manners,  reproaches  the  female  sex.  This  last  note  con- 
nects itself  with  the  Papal  edict  on  celibacy,  which  evoked  such 
widespread  controversy.27  Neckham  emphasizes  the  danger  of 
marriage  and  the  necessity  of  celibacy.  Sincere  enough,  doubt- 
less, and  greatly  needed,  certainly,  De  Vita  Monachorum  is  still 
dry,  didactic,  and  dull. 

An  early  contemporary  of  both  Wireker  and  Neckham,  John 

28  Satirical  Poets  and  Epigrammatists,  2,  175-200. 
27  Haessner,    passim. 


47 

of  Salisbury,  Bishop  of  Chartres  (1120-1167),  in  addition  to 
his  famous  Polycraticus  and  his  letters,  wrote  "  a  satirical 
poem  in  six  books,  supporting  scholastic  philosophy  against 
the  courtiers."28  This  work  is  entitled  Entheticus  de  dogmate 
Philosophorum.  Knowing  the  scarcity  of  real  satire  among 
Anglo-Latin  productions  of  this  period,  and  how  prone  the 
good  clerks  were  to  sheer  didacticism  without  a  saving  grain 
of  humor,  we  may  well  doubt  the  satirical  tone  of  the  Enthe- 
ticus. 

But  the  Speculum  Stultorum  and  De  Vita  Monachorum  by 
no  means  exhaust  the  religious  satire  of  this  reign.  Other, 
and  very  minor,  productions,  couched  mainly  in  Goliardic 
Latin  verse,  appeared  but  a  few  years  later,  in  the  early  thir- 
teenth century,  when  King  John  and  Pope  Innocent  III  dis- 
agreed over  the  appointment  of  an  Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 
In  1207  the  king  sent  large  sums  of  money  to  Rome  to  bribe 
the  advisers  of  the  Pope,  but  failed  to  prevent  the  appoint- 
ment of  that  Stephen  Langton  who  was  soon  to  embarrass 
John  so  seriously  at  Runnymede  and  elsewhere.  The  papal 
interdict  had  followed  upon  the  King's  refusal  to  receive 
Langton  as  archbishop,  and  this  uncomfortable  state  of  affairs 
continued  for  five  years.  Within  this  period  we  find  some 
clerk,  aroused  by  the  miserable  condition  of  the  country,  in- 
veighing bitterly  against  papal  aggression.  He  writes  in  Goli- 
ardic Latin  rhyme,  and  his  text  is  the  avarice  and  venality  of 
the  Roman  court.29  "  Rome  is  a  market  where  all  is  offered 
for  sale,"  he  cries.  "  The  highest  bidder  wins,  and  the  poor 
man,  pleading  without  the  eloquence  of  money,  though  he  have 
on  his  side  Justinian  and  all  the  canons  of  the  saints,  cannot 
prevail."  In  one  stanza  the  poet  indulges  in  those  character- 
istic Goliardic  puns  that  appear  in  the  poems  attributed  to 
Walter  Map,  and  that  are  constantly  employed  in  religious 
satire  until  they  show  themselves  finally  in  Gower's  moral 
diatribes  two  centuries  later  :30 

MMorley,  English  Writers,  III,  p.    181. 

29  Political  Songs  of  England  from  John  to  Edward  II ,  ed.  Wright,  p.  14  f.   ~ 
80  The  translations  given  here  are  in  some  cases  revisions  and  condensa- 
tions of  those  furnished  by  Wright;  but  for  the  accuracy  of  these  and  all 
other  translations  in  the  present  volume  the  author  alone  is  responsible. 


48 

"  Solam  avaritiam  Roma  novit  parca ; 
Parcit  danti  munera,  parco  non  est  parca; 
Nummus  est  pro  numine,  et  pro  Marco  marca, 
Et  est  minus  Celebris  ara,  quam  sit  area."31 

Growing  more  directly  out  of  the  papal  controversy,  and 
far  more  specific  and  personal  in  its  character,  is  a  virulent 
attack  in  rhyming  Latin  verse  in  seven-line  stanzas,  on  the 
bishops  of  Bath,  of  Norwich,  and  of  Winchester,  who  sided 
with  the  king.32  This  constitutes  our  first  extant  Political 
Satire.33  The  invective  is  preceded  by  some  general  remarks 
before  the  writer  reaches  his  true  theme,  and  is  followed  by  a 
eulogy  of  Rochester  and  Ely,  who  favored  the  Pope. 

But  the  beginning  of  political  satire  in  the  reign  of  King 
John  is  not  confined  to  this  Latin  product.  It  is  also  ex- 
emplified in  more  popular  Anglo-French  songs34  against 
the  king's  foreign  policy.  At  Richard's  death,  Normandy, 
long  restive  under  foreign  rule,  was  lost  to  England,  but  there 
still  remained  among  the  Normans  a  faction  devoted  to  the 
English  cause  as  against  Philip  of  France,  the  new  ruler. 
Soon  after  the  Siege  of  Thouars,  in  1206,  some  Norman  trou- 
vere  reproaches  the  English  king  for  leaving  the  Bordelois, 
laments  the  separation  from  England,  and  beseeches  Savary 
of  Mauleon  not  to  fail  the  cause.35  But  far  more  pointed  and 
bitter  is  another  sirvente,  a  personal  attack  on  the  king,  writ- 
ten probably  in  1214,  after  the  loss  of  Poitou  and  Touraine, 
by  the  younger  Bertrand  de  Born,  and  also  addressed  to 
Savary  de  Mauleon.36  The  poem  is  short,  but  vitriolic. 
"  King  John,"  says  the  troubadour,  "  has  lost  his  dominions 
over  sea,  but  he  does  not  care.  He  cares  but  for  hunting 
hawks,  greyhounds,  and  ease !  "• 

81 "  Penurious  Rome  knows  only  avarice.  She  spares  the  gift-giver,  but 
is  not  sparing  to  the  penurious  man.  She  prefers  money  to  God  and  a 
mark  to  St.  Mark.  Her  altar  is  less  celebrated  than  her  money-chest." 

83  Political  Songs,  p.  6  f . 

13  See  supra,  p.  31  f. 

14  For  other  examples  of  this  lyric  satire,  see  infra,  passim,  and  especially 
p.  124  f. 

"Ibid.,  p.  i. 

88  Political  Songs,  p.  3. 


49 

"  Mais  ama  1'bordir  e  1'cassar, 
E  braes  e  lebriers  et  austors, 
E  sojorn." 

The  reproach  was  not  entirely  just,  for  John  did  not  sur- 
render his  French  possessions  without  a  struggle.  This,  how- 
ever, though  relating  to  England's  king,  is  really  a  foreign 
product;  as  are  the  two  sirventes  against  Henry  III,  written 
by  Bernard  de  Rovenac.37  They  would  neither  have  been 
written  nor  have  been  sung  in  the  England  of  this  period. 
Still  these,  together  with  the  Latin  poem  on  the  bishops,  are 
the  only  verses  that  remain  to  echo  the  momentous  events  of 
John's  disastrous  reign.  The  loss  of  a  foreign  empire,  the 
domestic  struggles  against  Church  and  baronage,  wars  with 
Irish,  Welsh,  and  Scotch,  Stephen  Langton  and  Magna  Charta 
— these  great  events,  despite  the  lack  of  a  common  medium 
of  speech,  may  well  have  been  the  themes  of  singers  in  songs 
that  have  utterly  passed  away.  Domestic  turmoil,  may  pre- 
vent the  rise  of  a  high  order  of  literature,  but  it  cannot  hush 
political  satire,  which  has  flourished  in  every  such  troubled 
period  of  English  history. 

Nor  have  we  much  more  surviving  from  the  stormy  half 
century  of  Henry  Ill's  rule.  Intolerable  papal  extortion, 
royal  oppression,  unsuccessful  invasions  of  French  territory, 
and,  most  significant  of  all,  the  prolonged  struggle  between 
king  and  baronage,  have  scarcely  survived  in  polemic  verse. 
King  John's  servile  submission  to  the  Pope,  and  the  resultant 
papal  taxation,  resented  so  bitterly  by  the  English  people, 
were  followed  in  the  reign  of  John's  immediate  successor  by 
the  culmination  of  papal  tyranny  in  England — a  tyranny  that 
finally  grew  so  intolerable  as  to  lead  in  the  latter  part  of 
Henry's  reign  to  utter  and  successful  revolt.  With  the  au- 
thority of  the  Pope,  the  king  compelled  the  clergy  to  contribute 
one-tenth  of  their  goods  to  enable  him  to  carry  on  his  unfortu- 
nate foreign  wars.  It  was  probably  at  the  period  of  the 
Sicilian  expedition,  in  aid  of  the  Pope  (1257),  that  some  eccle- 

w  Ibid.,  pp.  36,  39. 

4 


50 

siastic  uttered  in  Anglo-French  his  bitter  protest  against  this 
intolerable  tax.38  The  attack  on  the  king  is  more  direct  and 
unsparing  than  we  usually  find  in  these  expressions  of  resent- 
ment against  the  royal  policy.  "  King  and  Pope  plan  how 
they  make  take  from  the  clergy  their  gold  and  silver  " — 

"  Li  roi  ne  1'apostoile  ne  pensent  altrement, 
Mes  coment  au  clers  tolent  lur  or  e  lur  argent." 

The  use  of  Anglo-French  in  this  protest  might  seem  to 
indicate  something  of  an  appeal  to  the  secular  governing 
classes.  But  we  find  a  somewhat  similar  complaint,  in  Goli- 
ardic  Latin  rhyme,  directed  against  the  avarice  of  the  pre- 
lates.39 And  another  goes  still  farther,  including  the  king 
and  his  nobles  in  the  indictment.40  "  No  one  is  truly  esteemed 
in  this  degenerate  age  unless  he  has  sufficient  cunning  to 
deceive  the  simple.  The  rich  are  avaricious,  and  the  poor  are 
oppressed." 

But  these  vague  and  general  academic  complaints  do  not 
exhaust  either  in  spirit  or  in  subject-matter  the  satire  of 
Henry's  reign.  The  king's  imbecile  tyranny,  his  foreign 
favorites,  and  his  intolerable  taxation,  led  to  the  baronial 
league  under  the  great  Earl  Simon,  which  achieved  its  victory 
of  Lewes  in  1264.  That  long  historical  and  eulogistic  Latin 
poem  known  as  The  Battle  of  Lewes41  is  supplemented  by 
what  for  us  is  a  far  more  significant  production.  This  is  a 
politico-personal  ballad  in  English*2  directed  chiefly  against 
the  king's  brother,  Richard,  Earl  of  Cornwall,  King  of  the 
Romans,  who  was  the  object  of  much  popular  hatred.  After 
the  battle  of  Lewes,  he  fled  to  a  windmill,  which  he  garrisoned 
and  tried  to  hold  against  the  baronial  army.  This  incident 

88  Political  Songs,  p.  42. 
89 /&;<*.,  p.  44- 

40  Ibid.,  p.  46. 

41  Ibid.,  p.  72. 

43  Altenglische  Dicktungen.  ed.  Boddeker,  p.  98 ;  Altenglische  Sprach- 
proben,  ed.  Maetzner,  I,  152;  Ancient  Songs  and  Ballads,  ed.  Ritson,  I,  12; 
Political  Songs,  p.  69;  Reliques  of  Ancient  English  Poetry,  Percy  (1847 
ed.),  P.  89. 


51 

was  a  fruitful  source  of  ridicule,  and  now  some  English  glee- 
man  embodied  it  in  a  thoroughly  popular  ballad,43  giving  to  us 
for  the  first  time  in  satire  that  English  speech  which  had  sur-  ^ 
vived  under  Norman  despotism,  and  now  spoke  again  for  Eng- 
lish liberty.  Richard,  upon  his  return  to  England  in  1259, 
had  attempted  to  introduce  a  great  body  of  foreigners;  but 
this  was  resisted  by  the  barons,  and  he  was  compelled  to  send 
his  foreigners  home  again.  The  attempt,  however,  added  to 
his  unpopularity.  When  the  barons  were  trying  to  come  to 
an  understanding  with  Henry  III,  they  offered  Richard  thirty 
thousand  pounds  if  he  could  persuade  the  king  to  agree  to 
peace  on  their  terms.  Henry  refused,  and  the  sum  was,  of 
course,  not  paid.  But  the  writer  of  this  ballad  maliciously 
makes  it  appear  that  Richard  himself  demanded  the  money. 
Windsor,  the  king's  principal  stronghold,  was,  to  the  great  in- 
dignation of  the  English,  garrisoned  with  foreigners,  through 
Richard's  aid.  After  the  battle  of  Lewes,  the  Earl  of  War- 
ren, Henry's  partisan,  escaped  across  the  sea  to  France. 

"  Sit  ye  still  and  hearken  to  me.  The  King  of  Almaigne 
asked  thirty  thousand  pounds  to  make  peace  in  the  country, 
and  so  he  did  more.  Richard,  though  thou  art  ever  a  traitor, 
nevermore  shalt  thou  deceive. 

"  While  Richard  was  king,  he  spent  all  his  treasure  upon 
luxury.  He  brewed  evil;  let  him  drink  it.  He  seized  the 
windmill  for  a  castle,  brought  from  Almaigne  many  a  wretched 
soul  to  garrison  Windsor.  He  who  let  the  Earl  of  Warrenne 
pass  over  the  sea,  did  great  sin. 

"  Sire  Simond  de  Mountfort  hath  swore  bi  ys  chyn, 
Hevede  he  nou  here  the  Erl  of  Waryn, 
Shulde  he  never  more  come  to  is  yn, 
Ne  with  sheld,  ne  with  spere,  ne  with  other  gyn, 
to  help  of  Wyndesore." 

But  such  verse  as  this  does  not  represent  the  most  charac- 
teristic satirical  product  of  the  age.  In  order  to  see  what 
direction  the  spirit  of  adverse  criticism  is  taking  in  the  main, 
how  it  is  producing  invective  or  sombre  rebuke  rather  than 
satire,44  we  have  only  to  consider  A  Intel  Soth  sermun,  writ-  * 

43  See  catalogue  of  satirical  genres,  supra,  p.  7. 

44  See  supra,  p.  8. 


52 

ten,  or  rather  preached,  about  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth 
century.45  The  poem  is  only  one  hundred  lines  in  length,  but 
it  is,  most  significantly,  in  English,  and  was  probably  written 
by  some  friar  of  one  of  those  great  bodies,  the  Franciscans 
and  Dominicans,  introduced  into  England  in  1220  and  1224 
respectively,  and  originally  instituted  to  check  the  corruption 
of  the  monastic  orders  after  the  Crusades.  In  England  the 
friars  found  their  work  in  cities  and  towns,  and  among  the 
poorer  classes,  healing  the  sick  and  performing  every  imagina- 
ble office  of  ministration,  at  a  time  when  the  monastic  orders 
were  resident  mainly  in  the  rural  districts  and  were  making 
their  appeal  chiefly  to  the  aristocracy ;  while  the  secular  clergy 
were  thinking  of  the  income  from  their  benefices  rather  than 
of  any  popular  ministration.  The  friars  were  the  only  preach- 
ers, and  here  some  good  brother  is  addressing  his  flock  in  the 
vernacular.  His  subject-matter  is  entirely  social,  his  tone 
severe  and  admonitory,  his  appeal  to  the  lower  classes: 

"  We  know,"  he  says,  "  how  Adam  fell  from  bliss  and  abode 
in  hell  until  Christ  ransomed  him.  Into  that  same  hell  shall 
wend  all  backbiters,  thieves,  lechers,  and  whoremongers.  But 
not  merely  these.  Bakers  and  brewers,  who  give  false  meas- 
ure, make  bad  bread,  and  care  not  if  so  they  get  their  silver 
—thither  shall  they  also  wend.  All  priests'  wives  shall  be 
damned,  and 

peos  prude  yongemen, 

J?at  luuye)?  Malekyn, 
And  J?eos  prude  maydenes, 

]?at  luuyej?  ianekyn. 
At  chireche  and  at  chepyng; 

hwanne  heo  to-gadere  come — 

talk  but  of  illicit  love.  Yea,  even  when  they  come  to  church 
on  holy-day.  Masses  and  matins  concern  them  not;  they  are 
thinking  on  Wilkin  and  Watkin.  Robin  takes  Gilot  to  the  ale 
house,  where  they  talk  and  drink.  He  pays  for  her  ale,  and 
in  the  evening  she  goes  home  with  him.  Though  her  parents 
threaten  to  beat  her,  she  will  not  give  up  her  Robin." 

46  An  Old  English  Miscellany,  ed.  Morris,  E.  E.  T.  S.,  Vol.  49,  p.  187. 


53 

The  A  Intel  Soth  sermun  is  but  one  of  a  multitude  of  such 
productions  of  this  age.  A  Sermon  is  not  a  Satire.  The  most 
productive  literary  class,  the  only  class  producing  anything  but 
the  metrical  romances  and  the  popular  ballads — the  clergy — 
was  busily  preaching  the  life  to  come.  The  Church  was  a 
foe  to  genuine  satire.  Her  weapon  was  the  sermon. 

Hwon  holy  chireche  is  vnder  note**  is  but  another  of  this 
general  type,  rather  more  severe  and  denunciatory,  perhaps, 
than  the  average.  Its  thirty-six  lines  of  septenary  verse  are 
one  lament  over  decadent  ecclesiastical  conditions — 

"  Nv  is  holy  chireche  vuele  vnder  honde 
All  hire  weorre]?  )?at  wunej?  ine  londe — ." 

Of  course  satire  finds  no  scope  here,  nor  in  the  Poema 
Morale,  nor  in  the  dialogue  between  the  Body  and  the  Soul.47 
In  the  latter  the  Soul  reproaches  the  Body  for  its  luxurious 
living,  in  a  tone  sombre,  heavy,  moralistic,  but  certainly  not 
satirical.48 

Just  here  may  well  be  mentioned  a  peculiar  and  interesting 
medieval  genre,  the  Visions  of  Heaven  and  Hell.  This  genre 
is  interesting  not  only  in  itself,  but  as  culminating  in  that 
supreme  Vision,  the  Divine  Comedy.  Theological  in  its  origin, 
it  became  a  powerful  instrument  in  the  hands  of  the  clergy 
with  its  "  threats  of  hell  and  hopes  of  paradise."  In  France, 
in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries,  the  genre  was  illus- 
trated in  le  Songe  d'Enfer  and  la  Voie  de  Paradis  of  Raoul 
de  Houdan;  and  in  Le  Pelerinage  de  la  Vie  humaine  and  Le 
Pelerinage  de  fame  of  Guillaume  de  Digulleville.49  It  begins 
in  English  literature  with  the  frequent  references  in  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  prose  of  Aelfric  and  of  Wulfstan;  takes  more  formal 
shape  in  Bede's  Vision  of  Furseus  and  Vision  of  Drihthelm  in 
the  Ecclesiastical  History,  and  appears  in  the  Cynewulfian 

46  Ibid.,  p.  89. 

47  Altengl.,  Sprachproben,  I,  92  f. 

48  For  a  contrary  opinion,  see  Haessner,  p.  80. 

49  de  Julleville,  Tome  II,  2,  p.  205  f. 


54 

poems.  The  main  source  of  the  later  English  metrical  visions, 
however,  seems  to  have  been  the  Vision  of  St.  Paul,  in  Greek 
of  the  fourth  century;  from  which  are  derived  four  metrical 
versions  in  English.  The  Vision  of  Tundale,  1149  A.  D.,  an 
elaborate  composition  in  2,400  lines,  presenting  Hell,  Purga- 
tory, and  Paradise,  sums  up  all  preceding  Visions.  Robbers, 
murderers,  and  bad  clergymen  are  placed  in  Hell,  but  treated 
sermonically,  not  satirically.50  About  1150  A.  D.,  the  famous 
St.  Patrick's  Purgatory  continues  the  form,  and  within  the 
next  fifty  years  appear  two  Latin  "  versions  "  in  prose ;  Visions 
of  the  Monk  of  Evesham  (1196),  and  The  Vision  of  Thurcill 
(1206). 

Most  important  for  our  present  purpose  of  all  the  English 
metrical  versions  is  The  XI  Pains  of  Hell  of  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, which,  together  with  two  other  versions,  one  by  John 
Awdelay,  is  a  rendering  of  the  early  Greek  Vision  of  St.  Paul. 
It  is  given  by  Morris  in  his  Old  English  Miscellany  as  two 
hundred  and  ninety  lines  in  length,  in  tetrameter  verse,  rhym- 
ing a  a  b  b,  with  occasional  lines  in  French.51  In  other  ver- 
sions, St.  Paul  is  conducted  to  Hell  by  the  Angel  Michael, 
while  here  the  sinner  returns  from  hell  and  narrates  his  vision 
of  the  eleven  dreadful  forms  of  punishment.  First,  he  sees 
burning  trees  upon  which  are  hanged  the  souls  of  those  who 
in  this  life  never  went  to  church.  In  a  heated  oven  suffer  the 
maker  of  unjust  laws  and  the  unjust'judge : 

per  schule  )?e  saulen  beo  to-drawe. 
pat  her  arereden  vnryhte  lawe. 

Unchaste  women,  lovers  of  usury,  suffer  in  a  stinking  pen; 
where  also  are  punished  those  who  ill-treated  the  innocent  and 
weak  and  robbed  the  poor.  Those  who  condemned  Christ  to 
death  stand  forever  in  a  hot  pool  under  a  deep  gaol.  Had  a 
hundred  men  with  teeth  and  tongues  of  steel  talked  from  the 
time  of  Cain  till  now,  they  could  not  have  told  all  the  pains 
of  Hell ! 

60  See  Becker,  A  Contribution  to  the  Comparative  Study  of  the  Medieval 
Visions  of  Heaven  and  Hell,  passim. 

61  E.  E.  T.  S.,  Vol.  49,  P-  147. 


55 

The  Eleven  Pains  of  Hell  may  be  taken  as  representative 
of  this  extraordinary  and  very  vigorous  genre.  Even  where 
it  deals  in  vituperation  or  invective  it  is  always  quite  innocent 
of  humor,  most  sombre  in  coloring,  didactic  in  purpose.  Satire 
it  is  not  even  in  the  most  remote  sense ;  but  can  scarcely  escape 
slight  mention  in  any  account  of  English  satirical  verse,  if  only 
by  the  mere  fact  that  it  so  clearly  shows  how  intensely  prac- 
tical literature  was  bound  to  be  in  the  hands  of  ecclesiastics, 
and  how  incapable  of  real  satire  is  sheer  didacticism.  Even 
A  Intel  Soth  sermun  in  its  faint  picture  of  contemporary  man- 
ners is  too  earnest  to  use  its  picture  satirically ;  while  the  Vis- 
ions of  Hell  and  Heaven,  with  their  mighty  import  and  dread- 
ful message,  could  be  nothing  else  but  profoundly  earnest  and 
didactic.  Perhaps  more  germane  to  our  present  purpose  is 
the  remote  possibility  that  this  genre  was  parodied  in  the 
French  fabliau,  li  Fabliaux  di  Cognaigne  and  its  celebrated 
English  version,  The  Land  of  Cocakaygne. 

There  is  another  side  to  the  picture,  however ;  for  some  clerk 
of  this  period  has  left  us  a  very  light  and  humorous  little  poem 
directed  against  the  tailors.52  Its  subject-matter  is  very  gen- 
eral, without  personalities  or  special  local  color,  but  it  springs 
from  something  more  than  the  ordinary  commonplaces.  After 
Henry's  marriage  with  Eleanor  of  Provence  in  ^2,36,  the  I ' 
queen's  kindred  poured  into  England,  introducing  foreign  cus- 
toms and  fashions  of  dress.  And  again,  in  1243,  the  king  was 
followed  home  from  France  by  a  new  flood  of  his  mother's 
kinspeople.  Hence  this  genuine  little  Latin  Satire,  beginning 
with  a  witty  adaptation  of  the  opening  lines  of  the  Meta- 
morphoses: 

"  In  nova  fert  animus  mutatas  dicere  formas 
Corpora,  Dii  coeptis,  nam  vos  mutastis  et  illas, 
Aspirate  meis." 

This  bit  of  sartorial  satire  is  the  prototype  of  a  variety  that 
appears  again  and  again  in  periods  of  extravagant  fashion  in 

M  Political  Songs,  p.  51. 


56 

dress,  such  as  those  of  Henry  VIII  and  of  Elizabeth.  Many 
years  later,  toward  the  close  of  the  century,  in  the  reign  of 
Edward  I,  this  same  material  is  again  utilized,  but  in  a  very 
different  spirit.  The  speech  is  now  English,  the  motive  that 
of  the  preacher  of  A  Intel  Soth  sermun.  In  a  few  lines  of 
savage  rebuke,  the  writer  inveighs  against  the  female  love  of 
finery  in  general,  and,  more  particularly,  against  the  disposi- 
tion, displayed  even  by  women  of  the  lowest  class,  to  follow 
prevailing  fashions  in  dress.53 

Not  only  in  such  social  satire54  as  the  preceding,  but  also  in 
the  more  elaborate  attack  on  the  venality  of  the  judges,  this 
same  severity  of  tone  appears.  During  the  absence  of  Edward 
I  in  France,  from  1286  to  1290,  the  public  service  was  badly 
neglected.  Complaints  poured  in  against  the  judges  of  the 
courts  at  Westminster,  who,  as  the  chief  administrators  of  the 
law,  were  charged  with  violence  and  corruption.  Edward  re- 
turned to  punish  the  offenders  severely;  but,  probably  within 
this  period  of  the  king's  absence,  some  very  caustic  critic  has 
.embodied  his  opinion  of  judicial  venality  in  some  one  hundred 
and  fifty  lines  of  rhyming  Latin.55  The  attack  is  direct,  but 
not  without  its  share  of  rather  bitter  humor.  "  There  are 
obviously  judges  in  this  land  who  are  open  to  bribery,"  he 
says.  "  They  send  their  minions,  who  conclude  the  financial 
arrangements ;  and  it  is  generally  admitted  that  those  whose 
purse-strings  are  tight  will  have  to  wait  a  long  time  for  jus- 
tice." This  complaint,  though  characteristically  without  any 
revelation  of  individuality,  and  lacking  in  any  personalities, 
was  undoubtedly  evoked  by  contemporary  abuses.  It  sounds 
the  now  familiar  note  protesting  against  the  oppression  of  the 
poor. 

The  overbearing  ecclesiastical  tribunals,  known  as  the  Con- 
sistory Courts,  are  also  objects  for  severe  attack  at  this  same 
period.  A  short  poem  in  English56  has  come  down  to  us,  in 
which  some  minor  criminal  is  supposed  to  describe  his  experi- 

83  Political  Songs,  p.  153. 

"See  supra,  p.  32  f. 

65  Political  Songs,  p.  224. 

58  Boddeker,  Altenglische  Dichtungen,  p.  107;  Political  Songs,  p.  155. 


57 

ences  at  an  ecclesiastical  court  in  a  style  at  first  coarse  and 
finally  rankly  vituperative. 

We  must  now  turn  aside  for  an  instant  to  consider  a  famous 
poem  whose  only  claim  to  a  place  just  here  is  the  fact  that  it 
was  written  within  this  period,  probably  about  1250,  and  per- 
haps concerns  itself  with  ecclesiastical  affairs.  The  Owl  and 
the  Nightingale*1  a  debat  of  about  eighteen  hundred  lines  in 
tetrameter  couplets,  is  a  spirited  poem  of  the  "  flyting  "  type 
that  appeared  centuries  later  in  the  writings  of  Skelton  and 
of  Dunbar.  So  great  an  authority  as  Professor  Courthope 
sees  in  this  scolding-match  an  attempt  "  to  present  the  oppo- 
site opinions  of  the  strictly  monastic  party,  on  the  one  side,  and 
of  the  more  latitudinarian  among  the  secular,  and  even  the 
regular  clergy,  on  the  other."  58  To  the  ordinary  reader  this  is 
not  apparent.  Aside  from  one  or  two  contemptuous  references, 
not  a  trace  of  satire  appears  on  the  surface  of  the  poem,  at 
least,  so  general,  so  free  from  allusion,  is  its  subject-matter. 

Closely  related  to  the  Satire  on  the  Consistory  Courts  is  the 
customary  attack  on  the  clergy.  In  the  following  instance,  the 
criticism  extends  beyond  the  monastic  bodies  and  their  luxuri- 
ous and  stately  life  at  the  abbeys  and  monasteries,  and  includes 
even  the  friars,  who  have  now  sunk  into  that  same  condition 
of  iniquity  which  but  half  a  century  before  they  had  endeav- 
ored to  reform.  This  sudden  and  complete  degeneration  of 
the  orders  of  St.  Francis  and  St.  Dominic  in  England  is  one  of 
the  most  astounding  phenomena  in  history.  As  the  Franciscans 
were  at  first  the  most  zealous  and  effective  of  the  four  orders, 
so  now  they  seem  to  be  singled  out  as  special  targets  for 
attack,  and  are  accused  of  adding  hypocrisy  to  those  other 
misdemeanors  that  they  have  in  common  with  the  monks. 

Some  really  witty  and  satirical  critic  of  contemporary  relig- 
ious conditions  has  left  us  an  Anglo-French  poem  of  about 
two  hundred  and  fifty  lines,  the  form  of  which  is  obviously 
an  imitation  of  Wireker's  "  Novus  Ordo  Burnelli."59  This 

"Ed.  Wright,  Percy  Soc.  Pub.,  Vol.  n;  ed.  J.  E.  Wells,  Belle-Lettres 
Series,  1907. 

58  Courthope,  History  of  English  Poetry,  I,  p.  134. 

09  Political  Songs,  p.  137;  for  a  discussion  of  burlesque,  see  supra,  p.  18  f. 


58 

master  of  irony  knows  his  clergy  with  a  degree  of  thorough- 
ness that  must  have  been  galling  to  the  objects  of  his  attack. 
"  The  Order  of  Fair-Ease  "  is  a  new  fraternity  of  ecclesiastics, 
seeking  to  combine  the  varied  excellencies  of  all  the  others. 
From  the  Abbey  of  Sempringham  it  has  adopted  the  idea  of 
including  both  brethren  and  sisters  together  in  one  monastery. 
Beverly  has  taught  it  how  to  eat  and  drink  as  long  as  the 
candle  of  eighteen  inches'  length  continues  to  burn.  The  Hos- 
pitallers have  taught  the  new  order  to  dress  elegantly.  The 
Canons,  who  in  self-sacrifice  eat  flesh  in  their  refectory  three 
days  in  the  week;  the  Black  Monks,  who  are  drunk  every  day 
— but  for  social  purposes  only;  and  the  Secular  Canons,  who 
furnish  a  good  example  by  their  high  esteem  for  ladies,  and 
insist  that  the  brethren  and  sisters  should  be  constant  com- 
panions both  before  and  after  matins — have  all  contributed 
their  several  admirable  characteristics.  And  so  the  ironical 
arraignment  continues  through  the  orders  of  friars,  adopting 
from  each  brotherhood  what  is  alleged  to  be  its  most  distinc- 
tive trait.  This  is  the  first  really  humorous  piece  of  religious 
satire  since  the  Speculum  Stultorum. 

Similarly  burlesque  in  tone  and  belonging  to  this  same  period 
is  the  highly  indecorous  but  amusing  little  Satire  known  as 
The  Land  of  Cokaygne,™  written  in  one  hundred  and  ninety 
lines  of  English  verse.  It  is  directed  against  the  monks  and 
nuns,  and  describes  an  imaginary  country  where  conditions  are 
supposedly  ideal — where  there  is  plenty  to  eat  and  drink,  for 
the  abbeys  are  built  of  food,  and  the  rivers  flow  with  milk  and 
wine.  Best  of  all,  the  monks  and  nuns  are  afforded  unlimited 
opportunities  for  intercourse.  Unquotable  as  it  is,  this  little 
Satire  affords  an  amusing  commentary  on  what  was  supposed 
to  be  the  conventual  ideal  of  the  period.  Is  The  Land  of 
Cokaygne  a  parody  of  the  medieval  vision  genre,  as  well  as 
an  ironical  burlesque61  on  monastic  sensuality?  However  that 
may  be,  it  derives,  without  doubt,  from  the  French.  Le  Fabli- 
aux di  Coquaigne  describes  a  happy  land  of  feasting  and  idle- 

90  Poems  and  Lives  of  Saints,  ed.  Furnivall,  p.  156. 
81  See  supra,  p.  18  f. 


59 

ness,  where  they  celebrate  Easter  and  Candlemas  four  times 
every  year,  with  Lent  only  once  in  twenty  years ;  where  the 
houses  are  made  of  turbots  and  salmon,  the  beams  of  stur- 
geons, and  the  shingles  of  sausages;  while  the  spits  turn  in- 
cessantly across  the  streets  between  rivers  of  wine!62 

Just  as  satirical,  but  no  longer  burlesque,  and  somewhat 
more  severe,  is  the  crude  medley  of  religious  and  of  class 
satire,  which  Dr.  Furnivall  entitles  Of  Men  Lif  that  Wonty 
in  Lond,63  written  in  English  about  this  same  time  in  twenty 
six-line  stanzas.  After  ironically  attacking  the  friars  and 
monks,  the  writer  turns  against  the  various  mercantile  classes 
of  his  locality — tailors,  sutlers,  spinners,  potters,  bakers,  and 
so  on,  all  of  whom  are  inveighed  against  in  turn.  Though  of 
Irish  origin — for  the  scene  is  ostensibly  laid  in  Kildare — the 
satire  applies  only  too  well  to  the  England  of  its  period : 

"  Hail  be  3e  prestis  wi)?  sur  brode  bokes 

po3  sur  crune  be  ischaue,  fair  be)?  sur  crokes 
3ow  and  oj?er  lewiduen  dele}?  bot  a  houue. 
Whan  3e  deli]?  holibrede,  sine  me  botte  a  litil 
Sikirlich  he  was  a  clerk 
]?at  wrochete  )?is  craftilich  werke." 

But  the  Consistory  Courts  and  the  religious  fraternities  are 
not  the  only  objects  for  satirical  attack  during  the  glorious 
reign  of  Edward  I.  A  short  poem  of  two  versions,  in  Latin 
and  Anglo-French  respectively,  speaks  volumes  against  the 
administration  of  the  great  law-giver.  It  is  a  genuine  expres- 
sion of  popular  discontent,  an  indictment  against  public  fraud 
and  oppression.  Some  learned  clerk  is  feeling  very  pessimis- 
tic over  the  condition  of  affairs.  He  is  too  much  in  earnest, 
too  near  the  objects  of  his  attack,  to  indulge  in  superfluous 
humor,  even  were  he  capable  of  it — which  is  doubtful.64  His 
wail  is  echoed  by  another  poet  in  a  strange  medley  of  Latin, 
English,  and  Anglo-Norman,  who  laments  the  oppression  of 
the  poor  and  the  general  corruption  of  the  age  ;65  and  by  still 

62  See  Lenient,  p.  92. 

63  Poems  and  Lives  of  Saints,  p.  152  f. 
84  Political  Songs,  p.  133. 

68  Ibid.,  pp.  251-252. 


60 

another,  writing  more  elaborately,  and  in  English,  who  voices 
particularly  the  miserable  lot  of  the  peasant:66 

"  To  entredite  and  amonsi 
Al  thai,  whate  hi  evir  be, 
That  lafful  men  doth  robbi, 
Whate  in  lond  what  in  see; 
And  thos  hoblurs,  namelich, 
That  husbond  benimeth  eri  of  grund ; 
Men  ne  schold  ham  biri  in  non  chirch, 
Bot  cast  ham  ute  as  a  hund." 

Though  one  grant  the  sincerity  of  these  several  productions, 
he  must  still  in  general  regard  them  such  as  every  period  pro- 
duces in  greater  or  less  quantity.  Far  more  vital  than  these, 
and  expressing  apparently  a  popular  feeling,  is  a  very  interest- 
ing poem  in  English,  purporting  to  be  the  complaint  of  a  hus- 
bandman against  inordinate  taxation.  In  order  to  carry  on 
his  wars  with  France,  Flanders,  Wales,  and  Scotland,  Edward 
I  was  compelled  to  resort  to  extremely  heavy  taxation,  actu- 
ally amounting  at  one  time  in  the  case  of  the  clergy  to  one- 
half  their  income ;  and  in  that  of  the  tenantry,  to  one- fourth. 
This  tax  fell  most  grievously  upon  the  poor.  What  the 
wretched  peasant  perceived  was  not  the  glorious  issue  of  the 
great  king's  projects,  but  his  own  immediate  sufferings.  This 
vigorous  complaint  seems  to  voice  the  misery  of  all  the  poor 
in  England:67 

"  Ich  herde  men  upo  mold  make  muche  mon, 
Hou  he  beth  i-tened  of  here  tilyynge, 
Code  seres  and  corn  bothe  beth  a-gon, 
Ne  kepeth  here  no  sawe  ne  no  song  syng. 

"  Now  we  mote  worche,  nis  ther  non  other  won, 
Mai  ich  no  lengore  lyve  with  my  lesinge ; 
Set  ther  is  a  bitterore  bid  to  the  bon, 
For  ever  the  furthe  peni  mot  to  the  kynge." 

In  general  this  same  protest  is  again  expressed  by  another 

66  Ibid.,  p.  195  f. 

67  Altenglische  Dictungen,  p.  100;  Political  Songs,  p.  149. 


61 

poem68  in  mixed  Latin  and  Anglo-French,  which  seems  to 
refer  to  the  king's  expedition  against  Flanders.  Characteris- 
tically, either  through  loyalty  or  for  fear  of  the  consequences, 
it  blames  the  king's  ministers,  though  no  ruler  was  ever  more 
responsible  for  his  own  actions  than  was  Edward  I.  The  king 
had,  to  his  great  joy,  discovered  a  new  source  of  revenue  in 
fixing  a  heavy  duty  of  one-tenth  on  all  wool  exported  from  the 
country.  The  stress  laid  upon  this  grievance  might  indicate 
the  writer  to  have  been  some  Cistercian  monk : 

"  A  King  should  not  leave  his  country  without  consent  of 
the  commons.  Every  year  the  fifteenth  penny  goes  to  work 
this  common  harm,  and  the  common  people  must  sell  all  they 
have  to  meet  the  tax. 

"  Depus  que  le  roy  vodera  tarn  multum  cepisse, 
Entre  les  riches  si  purra  satis  invenisse ; 
E  plus,  a  ce  que  m'est  avys,  et  melius  fecisse 
Des  grantz  partie  aver  pris,  et  parvis  pepercisse. 

Qui  capit  argentum  sine  causa  peccat  egentum. 

To  the  evil  counsellor,  not  the  king,  should  be  laid  the  blame 
for  this.  Such  taxation  is  robbery.  Let  the  rich  be  taxed,  but 
spare  the  poor." 

But  while  the  war  with  Flanders  had  no  sympathy  from  the 
people,  that  against  Scotland  aroused  their  enthusiasm.  After 
the  battle  of  Falkirk,  in  1298,  some  cleric,  writing  in  Latin, 
mingles  together  an  account  of  the  battles  with  the  Scotch, 
sneers  at  the  conquered  people,  eulogy  of  Edward,  and  didac- 
tic moralizing.  He  exclaims: 


"  Scribo  novam  satyram,  sed  sic  ne  seminet  iram." 69 

The  defeat  of  Wallace  at  Falkirk  and  the  great  patriot's 
execution  were  followed  in  September,  1306,  by  the  battle  of 
Kirkencliff,  where  Sir  Simon  Fraser  was  taken  prisoner.  It 
is  on  the  execution  of  this  Scottish  leader  that  we  have  a  thor- 
oughly popular  ballad  in  English.70  Gibes  against  the  Scotch 

88  Political  Songs,  p.  182. 
68  Political  Songs,  p.  160. 

70  Altenglische   Dictungen,   p.    121;    Ancient   Songs   and   Ballads,    i,    28; 
Political  Songs,  p.  212  f. 


62 

constitute  its  only  claim  to  satire,  for  it  is  in  effect  rather  a 
paean  of  victory. 

But  the  political  ballad  and  the  general  social  Satire  do  not 
entirely  exhaust  the  satirical  verse  of  Edward's  reign.  The 
pride  and  ostentation  of  his  courtiers  meets  with  a  sharp  pro- 
test in  a  short  poem  in  English — rather  disgusting,  but  cer- 
tainly instructive — on  the  retinues  of  the  great  nobles.71  Far 
more  humorous  is  an  attack  on  the  scholastic  studies  of  the 
universities,  in  Goliardic  verse,  written  perhaps  by  an  adherent 
of  that  older  and  broader  system  of  instruction  that  had  been 
displaced  by  the  rise  of  scholastic  theology  under 'the  friars 
in  the  early  part  of  the  century.72  Roger  Bacon  might  well 
have  sympathized  with,  or  even  written,  this  remarkably  acute 
and  humorous  protest.  But  our  cleric  led  no  general  revolt, 
for  scholasticism  continued  to  flourish  throughout  the  follow- 
ing century: 

"  Circa  dialecticam  tempus  cur  consumis, 
Tu  qui  nullos  redditus  aliunde  sumis? 
Colat  qui  per  patriam  natus  est  e  summis, 
Dives  agro,  dives  positis  in  faenore  nummis."73 

Entitled  to  a  place  here,  chronologically,  at  least,  are  two 
successors  of  the  Anglo-Latin  satirists  of  one  and  two  centu- 
ries earlier.  Robert  Mannyng  and  Richard  Rolle  are  not  by 
intention  satirists,  but  didactic  writers  whose  elaborate  works 
very  well  illustrate  the  output  of  their  time  and  class.  Yet 
they  deserve  mention  here,  if  only  to  differentiate  the  Hand- 
lyng  Synne  and  The  Prick  e  of  Conscience  from  any  genuine 
satire. 

Robert  Mannyng's  Handlyng  Synne™  written  perhaps  in 
1303,  was  a  translation  into  English  tetrameter  couplets  of  a 

71  Altenglische  Dictungen,  p.  134;  Political  Songs,  p.  237  f. 

73  Ibid.,  p.  206  f. 

78 "  Why  do  you  waste  your  time  on  dialectics,  you  who  receive  no 
income  from  other  sources?  Let  the  high-born  cultivate  it,  he  who  is  rich 
in  land  and  in  money  laid  out  at  interest." 

74  Ed.  Furnivall,  E.  E.  T.  S.,  Original  Series,  119  and  123. 


63 

didactic  work  entitled  Manuel  des  Peschiez  by  a  certain  Wil- 
liam of  Waddington.  The  elaborate  plan  comprises  a  treatise 
on  the  Ten  Commandments,  various  transgressions  thereof 
being  set  forth  by  doctrine  and  illustrated  by  tales.  The  Seven 
Deadly  Sins,  the  Seven  Sins  of  Sacrilege,  The  Seven  Sacra- 
ments, are  also  treated  in  the  same  fashion.  The  whole,  while 
distinctly  related  to  its  time,  in  fact  replete  with  contemporary 
matter,  can  lay  no  claim  to  satire.  It  is  one  of  those  serious 
and  didactic  performances  which  are  really  utterly  foreign  to 
the  satiric  temper.75 

No  long  interval  elapsed  between  the  composition  of  Hand- 
lyng  Synne  and  that  of  Richard  Rolle's  The  Pricke  of  Con- 
science.™ The  "  Hermit  of  Hampole "  lived  from  1290  to 
1349,  and  probably  wrote  his  elaborate  didactic  poem  at  the 
very  time  when  Lawrence  Minot  was  so  gleefully  celebrating 
the  triumphs  of  King  Edward  III.  The  difference  between 
them  is  the  difference  between  the  court  and  the  cloistered  cell. 
The  Pricke  of  Conscience — almost  ten  thousand  lines  long,  in 
tetrameter  couplets — has  seven  parts — Birth,  Life,  Death,  Pur- 
gatory, The  Judgment,  Hell,  and  Paradise.  The  whole  is  one 
long  sermon  without  humor  or  contemporary  allusions.  Of 
the  two  poems,  Handlyng  Synne  is  superior  in  human  interest. 
Neither  work,  however,  merits  any  elaborate  treatment  in  the 
story  of  English  satirical  verse. 

Ill 

But  if  subject-matter  for  satire  was  ample  in  the  times  of 
Edward  the  Law-Giver,  it  was  vastly  augmented  in  the  reign 
of  his  son  and  successor,  Edward  the  Second,  the  unwise  and 
unruly  (1307-1327).  Bannockburn,  with  its  inglorious  de- 
feat, in  1314,  followed  for  many  years  by  merciless  Scotch 
ravages  on  the  Border;  in  1315-1316,  a  terrible  famine  as  a 
result  of  the  dearth  which  had  begun  in  1289 ;  and  this  followed 
by  so  great  a  pestilence  in  1316-1317  that  "  the  living  scarcely 
sufficed  to  bury  the  dead  " ;  a  dreadful  murrain  among  the  cat- 

75  See  supra,  p.  8. 

78  Ed.  Morris,  Phil.  Soc.  Pub.,  1863. 


64 

tie ;  wheat  rising  from  3  pence  to  10  shillings  per  bushel : — these 
were  among  the  disastrous  events  and  conditions  of  Edward  the 
Second's  reign.  And  all  this  time  lasted  the  king's  contemptible 
conduct,  first  with  Piers  Gaveston,  then  with  the  Despensers, 
which  led  to  a  war  with  the  barons  in  1322,  until  finally  the 
queen's  treacherous  intrigues  occasioned  the  fall  both  of  the 
wretched  king  and  his  ambitious  favorites.  All  through  these 
unfortunate  political  conditions  continued  the  maladminis- 
tration of  justice;  while  the  corruption  of  both  the  monastic 
and  of  the  secular  clergy,  from  prelate  to  parish  priest,  was  a 
conspicuous  and  growing  evil  that  was  rapidly  leading  to  the 
great  reformatory  movement  under  Wy  cliff  e  half  a  century 
later. 

All  these  various  conditions  are  summed  up  by  an  earnest 
critic,  not  without  a  sort  of  bitter  humor,  in  a  vernacular  poem 
of  almost  eight  hundred  lines,  in  every  respect  superior  to  any 
preceding  "  Satire  " — A  Poem  on  the  Times  of  Edward  1 1,™ 
as  it  has  been  styled.  This  "  poem  "  in  its  subject-matter,  tone, 
and  method,  is  so  typical  of  its  age  and  of  its  kind  as  to  merit 
a  somewhat  detailed  description.  It  sums  up  in  itself  a  multi- 
tude of  minor  efforts. 

First  of  all,  the  Poem  is  social  satire  in  its  wail  of  protest 
against  the  condition  of  the  poor,  and  religious  satire  in  its 
attack  on  the  clergy.  But  the  political  note  is  lacking — and 
that  in  an  age  so  fruitful  in  matter  for  political  satire.  Still, 
if — as  we  assume — the  poem  is  a  popular  production,  there 
are  obvious  reasons  for  the  absence  of  this  note.  The  matter 
x>f  primary  interest  to  the  people  was  their  own  condition. 
Famine,  pestilence,  and  the  ravages  of  war  were  too  near  to 
admit  consideration  of  political  affairs  or  perhaps  any  interest 
in  them.  Even  granting  that  this  interest  existed,  the  people 
had  scarcely  learned  how  to  express  themselves.  Furthermore, 
that  portion  of  the  clerical  body  which  alone  produced  the 
literature  of  medieval  England  was  not  engaged  in  politics, 
and,  in  the  main,  paid  little  attention  to  political  affairs ;  while 
the  baronial  class,  participating  in  state  affairs  and  powerful 

"Ed.  Hardwick,  Percy  Soc.  Pub.,  Vol.  28;  ed.  Wright,  Political  Songs, 
P-  323. 


65 

enough  to  express  an  adverse  opinion,  produced  no  literature. 
But  apart  from  this  absence  of  the  political  note,  our  satirist 
makes  a  praiseworthy  effort  to  cover  the  ground,  with  a 
superb  disregard  for  unity  of  theme,  yet  with  redeeming  vigor 
and  sincerity: 

"  Why  werre  and  wrake  in  londe 
And  manslaugt  is  y-come, 
Why  honger  and  derthe  on  erthe 
The  pour  hath  over-nome; 
Why  bestes  beth  i-storve 
And  why  corne  is  so  dere, 
3e  that  wyl  abyde, 

Lystyn  and  se  mow  here, 

With  skyl ; 

Certes  without  lesyng, 
Herken  hit  ho  so  wyl." 

"  Gold  will  buy  honor  for  a  criminal.  Archbishops  and 
bishops,  who  are  guardians  of  men's  consciences,  are  afraid  to 
condemn  others,  since  their  own  lives  are  so  impious.  Arch- 
deacons are  open  to  bribery;  simony  wins  preferment  for  the 
unworthy.  When  a  priest  has  once  gained  his  benefice,  he 
leaves  it  in  the  charge  of  a  servant,  while  he  himself  goes  hunt- 
ing in  a  far  country.  Abbots  and  priors  spend  their  time  in 
sport.  We  have  religion  enough,  but  no  God  in  it.  See  how 
these  monks  punish  themselves  for  the  love  of  God!  They 
wear  socks  and  felt  boots;  they  are  well  fed  with  good  flesh 
and  fish,  and  leave  little  in  the  dish ! 

"  Religion  was  i-maked 

Penance  for  to  drye, 
Now  it  is  mych  i-turned 
To  pryde  and  glotonye. 
Wer  schalt  thu  fynde 
Redder  men  on  lerys 
Fayrer  men  other  fatter 

Than  monks,  chanouns,  other  freres  in  town? 
Forsothe  ther  nys  non  aysier  lyf 

Than  is  religion." 

Friars  are  selfish  and  covetous,  readily  bribed,  contemners 
of  the  poor,  flatterers  of  the  rich : 


66 

"  3if  the  rych  man  deyth, 
That  was  of  grete  myst, 
Then  wol  the  freres  al  day 

For  the  cors  fist. 
Hyt  is  not  al  for  the  calf 
That  the  cow  loweth, 
But  it  is  for  the  gode  gras 
That  in  the  mede  groweth, 
By  my  hod !  " 

Having  finished  with  the  clergy,  the  satirist  proceeds  to  in- 
dict the  different  classes  and  professions  in  the  usual  medieval 
manner — physicians,  lawyers,  barons,  squires,  knights,  mer- 
chants, sheriffs,  judges,  statesmen,  and  others,  all  of  whom 
thrive  by  imposing  on  the  poor. 

Nothing  could  be  more  popular,  more  alive,  in  that  it  draws 
inspiration  directly  from  existing  conditions  with  which  its 
author  was  familiar.  Here  are  sounded  the  three  principal 
notes  of  the  characteristic  medieval  English  Satire — the  misery 
of  the  poor,  the  vices  of  the  clergy  from  Pope  to  friar,  the 
faults  of  the  various  professional  and  social  classes. 

This  last  note  is  heard  now  for  the  first  time,  and,  for  a 
century  or  over,  continues  to  characterize  satirical  poetry.  Its 
origin  is  fairly  obvious,  but  interesting.  As  a  result  of  wider 
commercial  relations,  there  grew  up  in  England  during  the 
latter  part  of  the  reign  of  Edward  I  that  great  burgher  class 
which  was  later  to  become  the  mainstay  of  the  English  nation. 
With  the  growth  of  the  towns  came  the  working  gilds,  giving 
each  class  its  individual  dress.  These  newer  trade  divisions, 
together  with  the  classes  resulting  from  chivalry — the  knight, 
the  squire;  and  the  ecclesiastical  classes — the  monk,  the  friar, 
the  parish  priest ;  form  in  the  early  fourteenth  century  a  society 
of  rigid  divisions ;  each  trade,  art,  profession,  with  its  distinc- 
tive dress,  so  significant  and  easily  distinguishable,  that  our 
satirist  tends  to  endow  the  individual  class  with  fixed  moral 
characteristics  as  marked  as  its  outward  habit.  Thus  men  are 
regarded  not  as  individuals,  but  as  members  of  a  certain  order. 
This  lack  of  individuality,  and  consequently  lack  of  characteri- 
zation, in  medieval  satire,  is  of  course  the  result  of  well  under- 


67 

stood  pre-Renaissance  conditions  of  life  where  the  Church  and 
the  feudal  system  helped  to  merge  the  individual  in  his  class. 

Both  in  its  popular  form  and  in  its  choice  of  subject-matter 
this  poem  on  the  bad  times  of  Edward  II  is  what  might  be 
expected  at  this  period,  when  the  national  consciousness  is 
growing,  the  voice  of  the  people  is  making  itself  heard,  and 
the  Anglo-French  dialect,  with  its  limited  appeal  to  the  court 
circle,  has  been  supplanted  by  the  English  language  —  the  speech 
of  a  homogeneous  nation. 

In  October,  1311,  Edward  II  was  compelled  to  yield  to  the 
demand  of  his  nobles  and  grant  a  reconfirmation  of  Magna 
Charta,  consenting  among  many  other  things  to  the  banishment 
of  his  infamous  favorite  Gaveston.  But  the  king  had  -  no 
sooner  escaped  from  his  nobles  than  he  rejoined  Gaveston  and 
broke  his  promises.  Based  on  these  circumstances,  a  political 
poem  of  a  hundred  lines  in  English,  with  an  admixture  of 
Anglo-French,  reproaches  the  king  for  his  perfidy  and  in- 
quires into  the  condition  of  the  kingdom.81  "  The  king  can 
make  and  unmake,"  says  the  poet,  "  but  he  does  so  too  often  for 
the  good  of  the  State.  Our  Prince  of  England,  by  the  counsel 
of  his  people,  held  a  great  parliament  at  Westminster.  He 
made  Magna  Charta  of  wax,  as  I  understand,  and  very  well 
believe,  for  it  was  holden  too  near  the  fire  and  is  molten  all 
away." 

The  king's  breach  of  faith  led  to  the  death  of  Gaveston  in 
1312.  Within  a  few  months  the  powerful  and  jealous  Lancas- 
ter and  that  Earl  of  Warwick,  whom  the  royal  favorite  had 
styled  "  The  Black  Dog  of  Ardenne,"  accomplished  his  ruin. 
He  was  captured  and,  after  throwing  himself  at  Lancaster's 
feet  and  pleading  in  vain  for  mercy,  summarily  beheaded.  Two 
short  Goliardic*  poems,  parodies  of  hymns  in  the  old  Church 
service,  attest  the  joy  of  at  least  the  ecclesiastical  contingent 
over  Gaveston's  fall.82  While  partly  elegiac,  partly  celebratory 
in  tone,  these  two  poems  are  in  effect  attacks  on  the  king  and 
his  policy. 

81  Political  Songs,  p.  253;   for  the  Political  Satire  in  general,  see  supra, 


p.  31    . 

82  Political  Songs,  p.  258  f. 


68 

Only  two  years  after  Gaveston's  execution  came  Bannock- 
burn.  Without  the  consent  of  Parliament  and  apparently  also 
without  popular  sympathy,  Edward  met  the  Scotch  and  was 
overwhelmingly  defeated.  The  Earl  of  Gloucester  was  among 
the  slain — through  treachery,  asserts  the  author  of  the  Latin 
poem  which  is  at  once  a  description  of  the  battle,  an  elegy  on 
the  Earl,  and  an  attack  on  the  king.83  The  king  is  charged 
with  bad  judgment  and  weakness  in  heeding  those  evil  coun- 
sellors through  whose  venom  England  is  poisoned.  Bannock- 
burn  was  lost  through  treachery,  declares  the  poet,  and  Glouces- 
ter brought  to  his  death  by  these  same  wicked  men,  on  whom 
the  remaining  nobles  should  take  vengeance. 

Although  Anglo-French  has  now  been  supplanted  by  Eng- 
lish, the  vast  preponderance  of  Latin  shows  that  literature  is 
still  largely  in  the  hands  of  ecclesiastics.  This  does  not  mean, 
however,  that  some  Latin  poems  were  not  in  a  sense  a  popular 
product.  It  is  necessary  to  distinguish  between  Latin  produc- 
tions that  are1  merely  academic  and  poems,  such  as  have  just 
been  considered,  which  are  in  a  measure  an  expression  of  the 
sentiment  of  the  whole  people.  With  the  growth  of  the  towns 
and  the  rise  of  the  burgher  classes  came  a  new  order  of  things, 
which  greatly  influenced  satirical  poetry  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  fourteenth  century.  The  soldiers  and  the  free  population 
of  the  towns  gained  expression  for  their  sentiment.  But  great 
multitudes  still  were  silent;  and  it  was  very  long  before  the 
lowest  class  either  contributed  anything  to  this  vast  body  of 
satirical  verse  or  was  affected  by  it. 

IV 

It  is  again  in  Latin  that  the  next  significant  satirical  verse 
is  written.  Twenty  years  had  passed  since  the  melancholy  times 
of  Edward  II  when  the  brilliant  victories  at  Calais,  Crecy, 
and  Poitiers,  cemented  the  English  people  together  by  a  com- 
mon national  pride.  The  satire  against  Scotland  is  now  sup- 
plemented by  that  against  France.  The  songs  of  Lawrence 
Minot,  the  laureate  of  the  French  and  of  the  Scottish  wars, 

88  Political  Songs,  p.  262  f. 


69 

are  eulogistic  and  triumphal  pseans,  celebrating  Halidon  Hill, 
the  sea-fight  at  Sluys,  the  avenging  of  Bannockburn,  the  siege 
of  Tournai,  the  victory  at  Crecy.  Minot  is  in  reality  a  glee- 
man,  successor  to  the  older  English  minstrels,  whose  songs  are 
in  no  sense  satirical  but  purely  celebratory.84 

England  had  long  had  no  love  for  France,  and  Edward's 
pretensions  to  the  French  crown  increased  this  customary  ill- 
feeling  to  an  exceeding  bitterness  that  is  amply  manifested 
in  the  two  political  poems  which  follow.  The  first,  through 
some  four  hundred  rhyming  hexameter  lines,  endows  poor 
France  with  every  abominable  quality  and  extravagantly  eulo- 
gizes Edward.  Only  a  characteristic  extract  can  give  any  idea 
of  the  vigor  and  the  variety  of  epithet  in  this  patriotic  diatribe; 

"  Francia,  fceminea,  pharissea,  vigoris,  idea, 
Lynxea,  viperea,  vulpina,  lupina,  Medea, 
Callida,  syrena,  crudelis,  acerba,  superba, 
Es  fellis  plena,  mel  dans  latet  anguis  in  herba, 
Sub  duce  Philippo  Valeys,  cognomine  lippo, 
Amoris  nomen  famam  cognomen  et  omen — ." 

The  other  poem,  in  but  sixty  lines  of  elegiac  verse,  is  a  prod- 
uct of  the  same  spirit,  though  its  subject-matter  is  rather  social 
or  moral  than  political.  The  Frenchman,  in  replying  to 
charges  brought  against  his  nation  by  the  Englishman,  admits 
that  his  compatriots  are  given  to  excessive  care  of  the  hair,  to 
effeminacy,  to  affectation,  but  bitterly  denies  the  charge  of 
licentiousness,  and,  in  turn,  accuses  the  English  of  being 
boors.85 

The  form  of  these  poems  in  hexameter  and  in  elegiac  verse 
stamps  them  as  academic  productions  that  are  still  an  expres- 
sion of  popular  sentiment,  of  growing  national  consciousness 
and  pride.  A  far  more  elaborate  and  very  different  order  of 
political  poem  is  the  long  Latin  Prophecy  of  John  of  Bridling- 
ton,  written  about  1370  by  some  clerk  in  the  service  of  the  last 
Humphrey  de  Bohun,  Earl  of  Hereford.88  ^  This  historical 

84  Political  Poems  and  Songs,  ed.  Wright,  Vol.  I,  p.  26. 


86 


Political  Poems,  i,  91.  / 

Ibid.,  i,  123  f. 


70 

retrospect  purports  to  be  the  prophecy  of  John  of  Bridlington, 
a  popular  saint  in  Yorkshire,  who  died  in  1379.  Bale  says  he 
had  the  gift  of  seeing  visions.87  The  poem  is  accompanied  by 
a  prose  commentary  appended  by  the  supposed  editor  of  the 
original  treatise.  The  Prophecy  is  an  historical  narrative  of 
over  six  hundred  lines,  with  incidental  eulogy  and  satire.  Al- 
most the  entire  reign  of  Edward  III,  with  its  multitudinous 
events,  is  passed  in  review.  The  character  of  Edward  II  is 
severely  handled,  and  Pope  Clement  and  David  Bruce  are 
attacked,  while  Edward  the  Third's  private  character  under- 
goes searching,  and  by  no  means  favorable,  analysis.  The 
author  claims  that  the  king's  sins  are  responsible  for  the  evils 
now  coming  apace  upon  the  country.  Much  of  the  poem  is 
intentionally  obscure,  and  much  is  tiresomely  didactic,  but, 
though  in  every  sense  an  academic  product,  The  Prophecy  is 
yet  significant  for  its  interest  in  public  affairs. 


These  various  Latin  poems  utilize  but  a  small  part  of  the 
subject-matter  afforded  by  their  age.  They  emphasize,  in  the 
main,  only  the  brilliant  aspect  of  a  reign  that  was  in  reality 
replete  with  difficult  labor  problems,  with  the  oppression  of  the 
poqr,  with  the  corruption  and  venality  of  the  clergy.  A  more 
complete  picture  was  to  be  painted  toward  the  close  of  Ed- 
ward's reign  by  a  genuinely  popular  satirist88  who  voiced  the 
evils  of  the  times  and  proposed  a  remedy  for  them  in  his  Vision 
of  Piers  the  Ploughman.™ 

To  call  Piers  Plowman  a  Satire  is  to  use  the  term  in  the 
broadest  possible  sense.  The  great  allegory,  through  its  gen- 
eral lack  of  humor  and  particularly  its  large  constructive  ele- 
ment, becomes  a  didactic  poem,90  a  fairly  complete  criticism 

81  See  G.  P.  Krapp,  The  Legend  of  St.  Patrick's  Purgatory,  p.  57. 

88  We   are   not   here   concerned   with   that  perplexing   and   still   unsettled 
question,    the    authorship    of   Piers    Plowman.     In    the    present    discussion 
"  Langland  "  signifies  the  author,  whoever  he  may  have  been,  and  whether 
one  or  several.     But  cf.  Manly,  Mod.  Phil.,  Vol.  Ill,  no.  2. 

89  Piers  the  Plowman  and  Richard  the  Redeless,  ed.  Skeat,  1886. 

90  See  supra,  p.  8. 


71 

of  its  age,  rather  than  a  Satire.  Still,  aside  from  the  work  of 
Chaucer,  it  represents  all  that  its  immediate  period  has  to  offer 
in  place  of  genuine  satirical  poetry.  For  this  reason,  and 
because  it  embodies  the  main  characteristics  of  previous  Eng- 
lish satire,  it  must  be  considered  an  important  link  in  the  chain 
binding  the  earlier  product  with  the  consummate  form  of  three 
centuries  later. 

Beneath  the  outward  glory  of  Edward  the  Third's  reign,  the 
bitter  humiliation  of  France,  the  vast  extension  of  English 
trade,  the  glitter  of  a  chivalric  court,  the  famous  exploits  of 
the  Black  Prince,  lay  a  dreadful  abyss  of  misery.  One  side, 
the  brighter,  is  portrayed  by  Chaucer;  the  other  side,  the 
darker,  is  depicted  by  the  author  of  Piers  Plowman.  Material 
for  satirical  treatment  was  never  more  plentiful,  from  a  medi- 
eval point  of  view,  than  when  the  first  text  of  Piers  Plowman 
was  written  in  1362.  In  the  three  great  realms,  political,  eccle- 
siastical, and  social,  there  was  no  dearth  of  subject-matter. 
Those  ecclesiastical  conditions  that  were  soon  to  lead  to 
Wyckliffe's  revolt  against  clerical  corruption  and  papal  tyranny, 
ever  increasing  since  the  reign  of  John;  those  political 
conditions  of  royal  misrule  and  oppression  that  were  finally 
to  lead  to  the  deposition  of  Richard  II;  those  social  condi- 
tions that  were  to  arouse  the  Peasant's  Revolt  in  1381 — all 
surrounded  this  sombre  champion  of  popular  rights,  and  are 
mirrored  in  his  verse.  The  subject-matter  forming  the  staple 
of  Langland's  theme,  though  almost  inextricably  confused, 
may  yet  be  divided  into  these  three  classes.  This  strange  but 
powerful  medley  forms  the  epitome  of  every  Satire  of  signi- 
ficance that  we  have  yet  considered. 

Langland's  allegorical  form  of  narrative,  with  its  innumera- 
ble personified  abstractions,  perhaps  resulted  from  the  influence 
of  the  Roman  de  la  Rose,  at  this  time  highly  popular  in  Eng- 
land. Langland  undoubtedly  utilizes  the  satire  on  beggars  and 
idlers  which  Jean  de  Meung  puts  into  the  mouth  of  False- 
Seeming.  The  French  poet  clothes  False-Seeming  in  the  gar- 
ment of  a  friar,  and  directs  some  of  his  sharpest  satire  against 
the  Franciscans  and  other  ecclesiastical  orders ;  and  perhaps  this, 


72 

too,  gave  hints  to  Langland.  But  the  poet  of  Piers  Plowman 
makes  no  use  of  that  bitter  and  pitiless  satire  on  women  with 
which  the  Roman  de  la  Rose  was  so  replete  as  to  elicit  a  reply 
in  the  Champion  des  Dames  of  Martin  Franc.  Jean  de 
Meung's  Duenna  furnished  valuable  suggestions  to  Chaucer, 
however,  and  perhaps  the  whole  of  the  Frenchman's  satire 
against  women  had  its  influence  in  England.  It  is  impossible 
to  say  how  much  of  the  later  English  product  was  influenced 
by  the  Roman  de  la  Rose. 

Langland's  form  of  allegory,  closely  related  to  Jean  de 
Meung's,  has  little  in  common  with  that  of  the  Speculum  Stul- 
torum.  It  needs  no  prologue  to  render  a  hidden  meaning 
apparent.  But  while  admirable  for  didactic  purposes,  it  is 
rather  too  cumbersome  a  garment  for  the  swiftly-moving  Muse 
of  Satire.  This  allegorical  form  becomes  effective  as  a  vehicle 
for  satire  only  when  its  personifications  are  genuine  charac- 
terizations, individuals.  Langland  has  achieved  characteriza- 
tion in  his  pictures  of  Avarice  and  of  Gluttony,  which  are  so 
true  to  nature  that  they  become  not  merely  types  of  avarice 
and  gluttony,  not  merely  class  representatives,  but  real  indi- 
viduals. Apart,  however,  from  these  two  lifelike  figures,  and 
a  certain  amount  of  individuality  in  that  of  Lady  Meed,  there 
is  no  life  in  the  abstractions  called  Falsehood,  Conscience, 
Reason,  and  others,  that  stalk  through  the  first  few  cantos  of 
the  poem.  From  these  frequently  dull  and  platitudinous  cantos, 
we  pass  to  something  far  more  vital  and  interesting.  The  fig- 
ure of  Piers  Plowman  has  actual  vitality;  he  is  a  character, 
not  a  personified  abstraction. 

The  allegorical  form  is  essentially  constructive  and  didactic, 
and  hence  unfitted  in  its  very  nature  for  satirical  purposes.  It 
is  also  too  abstract,  while  satire  is  essentially  realistic.91 
Wherever  Langland  grows  really  satirical,  he  merges  abstrac- 
tions in  pictures  of  actual  life  with  its  varied  types.  His  alle- 
gorical form  springs  from  prevailing  literary  influences,  and 
results  in  a  unique  adaptation  of  a  very  abstract  method  to 
very  realistic  material.  In  English  satire  this  form  is  entirely 
without  either  precedent  or  subsequent  influence. 

91  See  supra,  p.  14. 


73 

TV 

In  his  moral  satire,  Langland  uses  two  distinct  methods. 
In  the  first,  as  has  been  seen,  he  personifies  some  abstraction ; 
in  the  second,  he  arraigns  society  by  its  classes — a  thoroughly 
medieval  point  of  view,  already  somewhat  exemplified  in  the 
poem  on  the  times  of  Edward  II.92 

The  first  method  is  perennial,  but  Langland's  use  of  it  is 
distinctly  medieval.  The  classical  satirists  habitually  inveigh 
against  single  vices,  yet  never  against  abstractions.  They 
select  an  individual,  real  or  imaginary,  who  is  supposed  to 
embody  some  particular  foible,  and  that  person  is  made  to  live 
before  our  eyes.  But  the  medieval  satirist  either  attacks  the 
special  vice  entirely  in  the  abstract,  or  attempts  to  endow  it 
with  a  kind  of  factitious  life  by  personification.  It  has  been 
seen  how  such  personifications,  under  the  touch  of  genius,  may 
rise  into  actual  characterization,  until,  indeed,  they  become  the 
Sir  Epicure  Mammon  and  Sir  Giles  Overreach  of  centuries 
later.  But  in  the  main  Langland's  figures  are  mere  names. 
We  have  Simony,  who  is  a  shame  to  Holy  Church  and  a  vexa- 
tion to  the  people,  and  is  of  all  men  most  familiar  with  Lady 
Meed;  and  Bribery,  personified  as  Lady  Meed,  the  principal 
figure  in  the  first  four  cantos  of  the  poem,  who  is  most  splen- 
didly clothed  in  the  finest  furs  adorned  with  all  manner  of 
precious  stones,  of  ravishing  array,  and  is  as  familiar  in  the 
Pope's  palace  as  Holy  Church  herself.  We  have,  too,  the 
Seven  Deadly  Sins.  One  of  these,  Sloth,  has  been  priest  and 
parson  passing  thirty  winters,  yet  can  neither  sing  nor  read 
saints'  lives.  He  can  find  a  hare  in  field  or  furrow  better  than 
he  can  construe  one  phrase  in  the  Beatitudes. 

But  the  satire  against  classes,  both  ecclesiastical  and  social, 
is  more  elaborate  and  certainly,  in  the  main,  more  effective. 
The  idle  classes  are  objects  of  Langland's  severe  rebuke.  It 
is  part  of  his  ideal  social  system  that  such  people  should  be 
made  to  work.  Hunger  will  bring  them  to  reason,  he  argues. 
And  this  Hunger  does,  in  a  wonderful  scene  where  he  seizes 
and  almost  destroys  the  horde  of  idle  vagabonds  who  are  wast- 
ing the  substance  of  honest  Piers  Plowman.  Not  only  the  idle 

82  See  supra,  p.  64  f. 


74 

classes  but  those  who  live  by  fraud,  such  as  Knights,  Clerks, 
Sizers,  and  Summoners ;  Sheriffs,  Beadles,  Bailiffs,  and  Brok- 
ers of  Merchandise;  Victuallers  and  Advocates,  are  held  up 
to  contumely.  Summoners,  Deans,  Archdeacons,  and  Regis- 
trars, are  ordered  to  serve  Simony ;  Friars  are  drawn  in  a  cart 
made  by  Liar.  It  is  asserted  that  of  all  men  Brewers,  Bakers, 
Butchers,  and  Cooks  most  harm  the  poor  people  who  buy  in 
small  quantities.  Reason  will  not  have  pity  till  Clerks  be  covet- 
ous to  feed  the  poor ;  till  Bishops  spend  their  money  on  beggars 
rather  than  horses,  and  on  the  poor  Orders  rather  than  hawks 
and  hounds.  Even  the  Pope  is  not  spared,  for  he  is  counselled 
by  Reason  to  take  pity  on  Holy  Church  and,  ere  he  give  grace, 
first  govern  himself.  Sergeants-at-the-Bar,  who  plead  only  for 
pence  and  pounds,  never  for  love  of  our  Lord ;  Chaplains,  who 
may  be  chaste,  but  are  withal  lacking  in  charity ;  Priests,  whom 
avarice  hath  bound;  Pardoners,  who  by  special  license  from 
the  Pope,  sell  pardons,  but  are  themselves  unchaste;  Parsons 
and  Parish  Priests,  who  live  away  from  their  cures;  Bishops 
and  even  Novices,  both  masters  and  doctors,  who,  instead  of 
preaching,  praying,  and  feeding  the  poor,  live  in  London  and 
take  secular  occupation  for  the  sake  of  gain;  Friars,  who 
preach  for  their  own  profit  and  have  become  mere  pedlers  of 
articles  to  please  the  women ;  Pilgrims  and  Palmers,  who  jour- 
ney to  Rome  and  Campostella  and  visit  the  shrine  of  every 
saint  save  Truth ;  Hermits  who  carry  their  wenches  about  with 
them;  and  Jesters  and  Jugglers,  who  behave  in  an  unseemly 
fashion — all  these  figures  mingle  in  that  motley  throng  which 
moves  on  the  plain  called  Life ;  that  plain  lying  between  the 
Castle  of  Truth  and  the  Bottomless  Pit,  stretching  out  illimita- 
bly  in  the  Dreamer's  vision  until  its  distances  are  lost  in  mist. 
Its  life  is  fantastic,  yet  real.  Through  it  we  move  as  if  our- 
selves in  dream.  The  shapes  are  sometimes  sharply  defined, 
again  indistinct  in  the  twilight.  The  hour  is  always  gray 
dawn,  when  the  mist  has  not  yet  lifted,  or  near  eventide,  when 
it  is  about  to  descend  from  the  Malvern  hills  upon  the  plain. 

But   while   classes   and   abstractions    are    usually   satirized 
each  apart  from  the  other,  they  are  often  enough  associated. 


75 

Liar  is  rescued  and  welcomed  by  the  Pardoners,  desired 
by  the  Leeches,  housed  for  a  while  by  the  Minstrels,  but 
finally  possessed  by  the  Friars.  Lady  Meed  is  received 
at  Westminster  right  royally.  She  is  honored  by  all,  and 
consoled  by  some  of  the  Justices,  who  hasten  to  her  bower. 
A  Confessor,  clothed  as  a  Friar,  offers  to  absolve  her ;  though 
she  has  poisoned  Popes,  as  Provisors  know.  Sizers  and  Sum- 
moners  praise  her ;  and  Sheriffs  were  ruined  without  her.  She 
so  clothes  the  Commissary  of  the  Consistory  Courts,  and  his 
Clerks,  that  she  ever  escapes  punishment.  She  installs  ignor- 
ant Bishops,  provides  for  parsons,  permits  Priests  to  have  con- 
cubines, and  corrupts  the  Justices  of  the  Law  with  her  jewels. 

Throughout  this  satire  both  on  classes  and  on  abstractions, 
mingled  confusedly  at  every  step  of  the  way,  are  charges 
against  Church,  State,  and  society  at  large.  The  Church  is 
criticized  through  its  hierarchy,  from  Pope  to  mendicant  Friar, 
among  whom  Simony  reigns  supreme.  Absentee  clergy,  and 
those  "  provisors,"  foreigners  appointed  by  the  Pope  to  Eng- 
lish benefices,  are  bitterly  assailed.  "  Corruption,"  cries  Lang- 
land,  "  has  pervaded  every  branch  and  order  of  the  Church ; 
luxury  and  power  have  bred  contempt  for  the  poor;  heavenly 
things  are  neglected  for  temporal;  hypocrisy,  sensuality,  and 
greed,  have  eaten  up  the  ecclesiastical  body."  But  all  this  is 
merely  an  epitome  of  the  charges  that  previous  satirists,  since 
the  time  of  Walter  Map,  have  been  urging  against  the  clergy. 
It  shows  the  state  of  affairs  to  be  worse  than  ever — the  darkest 
part  of  the  night  before  the  first  faint  dawn  of  the  Wycliffian 
protest. 

The  State,  in  turn,  is  most  severely  blamed  for  its  corrupt 
law-courts.  Westminster  is  the  supposed  seat  of  justice,  but 
there  Meed  is  the  favorite  companion  of  Judges.  Under 
officers  of  state,  Sheriffs  and  the  like,  also  receive  bribes  and 
oppress  the  poor.  Finally,  the  people,  including  almost  every 
social  order,  are  infected  with  manifold  vices.  The  best  type 
of  all  is  the  honest  farmer,  and  he  is  oppressed  by  the  upper 
classes. 

Now  the  remedy  for  all  these  unhappy  conditions  in  Church, 


76 

State,  and  Society,  is  no  revolution  in  the  existing  ecclesiastical, 
political,  or  social  systems ;  no  abolition  of  the  old  order  in  any 
respect;  but  only  the  application  of  one  great  righteous  prin- 
ciple— Love  or  Right-Dealing.  This  is  the  positive  and  con- 
structive element  in  Piers  Plozvman.  Langland  exposes  un- 
sparingly and  minutely  all  the  abuses  he  sees  about  him,  and 
proposes  as  the  remedy  the  simple  but  fundamental  precept  of 
common  brotherhood.  Perhaps  the  larger  part  of  the  poem  is 
taken  up  with  this  constructive  element,  simply  didactic,  ser- 
monic.  By  no  possible  definition  could  such  constructive  pass- 
ages as  these  be  termed  in  any  sense  satirical ;  they  are  purely 
didactic,  and  entirely  without  humor.93 

But  Langland  not  only  makes  an  immense  step  in  advance 
in  his  wide  range  of  subject-matter  and  his  portrayal  of  types 
transcending  mere  abstractions ;  he  also  marks  a  new  era  in  his 
brief  but  graphic  pictures  of  contemporary  life.  Here  and 
there,  throughout  the  Dreamer's  Vision,  are  scattered  those 
vivid  genre  pictures  which  seem  the  only  concrete  realities 
amid  a  world  of  shadows,  and  which  show  a  marvelous  famil- 
iarity with  common  life  and  an  equally  marvelous  power  in 
portraying  it.  The  tone  is  sometimes  sympathetic,  as  when  the 
poet  touches  upon  the  plain  fare  and  simple  life  of  the  agricul- 
tural laborer.94  Again,  we  have  pictures  full  of  life  and  color, 
startling  in  their  realism,  as  in  the  description  of  a  London 
crowd.95  Sometimes  the  poet's  touch  is  purely  satirical,  as  in 
the  description  of  the  confession  of  Gluttony,  who  on  his  way 
to  be  shriven  is  thus  enticed  by  Beton,  the  brewster : 

"  '  I   haue  gode  ale,   gossib,'   quod  she  • '  glotown,   wiltow 

assaye  ? ' 
'  Hastow  auste  in  Y\  purs  •  any  hote  spices  ?  ' 

93  Among  these  constructive  passages  are  the  speech  of  Repentance  to 
Avarice  (P.  5,  1.  276  f.),  and  to  the  other  sinners  ;  Piers  Plowman's  instruc- 
tions to  the  Knight  (P.  6,  1.  38  f.)  ;  the  admonitions  given  by  Hunger 
(P.  6,  1.  215)  ;  the  conversation  between  the  Dreamer  and  Holy  Church 
about  Truth,  Conscience,  and  Charity  (P.  i,  entire)  ;  the  appeal  of  Con- 
science to  the  King  against  Lady  Meed  (P.  3,  1.  229)  ;  and  almost  the  entire 
eighth  passus. 

**Passus  6,  11.  282-97. 

*5  Prologue,  11.  216-30. 


77 

'  I  have  peper  and  piones/  quod  she  •  '  and  a  pounde  of 

garlike, 
A  ferthyngworth  of  fenel-seed  for  f astyngdayes.'  " 96 

Glutton  yields.  He  finds  in  the  shop,  Eis  the  shoemaker, 
Wat  the  warrener  and  his  wife,  Tim  the  tinker,  and  two  of 
his  prentices,  Hick  the  hackneyman,  Hugh  the  needle-seller, 
Clarice  of  Cock  Lane,  the  clerk  of  the  church,  Daw  the  ditcher, 
and  others,  among  whom  are  a  fiddle-player,  a  ratter,  a  sweeper 
of  Cheapside,  and  a  rope-maker.  They  hold  wassail.  Glutton 
gets  dead  drunk,  is  carried  home  by  Clement  the  Cobbler,  put 
to  bed,  and  wept  over  by  his  wife  and  daughters.  In  this  is 
illustrated  the  characterization  of  Gluttony,  already  referred 
to  more  than  once;  the  picture  of  contemporary  life,  and  the 
satire  on  the  vice  of  drunkenness. 

In  addition  to  such  contemporary  pictures  as  these,  Langland 
alludes  to  the  pestilences  and  storms  that  had  recently  devas- 
tated the  country ;  to  the  awful  visitations  of  the  Black  Death 
in  1349  and  succeeding  years,  and  the  terrible  phenomena  pre- 
ceding them — all  of  which  he  affirms  to  be  a  punishment  for 
sin.87  Again,  he  mentions  the  sufferings  of  the  English  sol- 
diery in  the  recent  Norman  campaign,  closed  by  the  Treaty  of 
.Bretigny  in  I36o;98  and,  referring  to  the  religious  fervor  that 
led 

"  — folk  to  goon  on  pilgrimages 
and  palmers  for  to  seken  straunge  strondes 
To  feme  halwes,  couthe  in  sondry  londes — ," 

he  raises  a  cry  against  the  money  loss  to  the  kingdom  result- 
ing from  such  follies,  and  has  Reason  rule  that  the  shrine  of 
St.  James  be  brought  from  Campostella  to  where  the  poor  sick 
lie  in  prisons  and  on  cots.89 

Thus   in   range   of   subject-matter,   in   characterization,   in 
attention  to  contemporary  events,  in  pictures  of  the  life  of 
time,  Langland  advances  far  beyond  his  predecessors.     It  is  in 

"P.  5,11.  310-13. 

WP.  5,11.  13-20. 
"P.  3,  11.  188-207. 

99  P.  4,  ll.  126-133. 


78 

the  final  and  very  vital  feature  of  humor  that  he  is  perhaps 
lacking.  The  Malvern  Dreamer  is  no  humorist.  Humor  of  a 
certain  kind  he  has — the  rather  bitter  humor  of  a  stern  moral- 
ist who  is  half  indignant,  half  sorrowful,  but  a  humor  some- 
times faintly  gleaming  through  his  sombre  allegory  like 
glimpses  of  the  sun  through  the  Malvern  mist.  It  springs 
most  frequently  from  the  satirist's  perception  of  the  incon- 
gruity between  practice  and  profession,  and  the  futility  of  mere 
external  observances: 

"  Pilgrymes  and  palmers  •  plishted  hem  togidere 
To  seke  seynt  lames  •  and  seynts  in  rome  • 
Thei  went  forth  in  here  wey  •  with  many  wise  tales, 
And  hadden  leue  to  lye-  al  here  lyf  after."100 

Again,  the  shaft  is  directed  against  social  classes,  by 
means  of  that  association  with  abstractions,  already  noticed, 
as  when  the  Summoners  are  saddled  as  palfreys  for  the  use 
of  Simony  and  of  Civil;101  and  as  when  Falsehood  flees  for 
refuge  to  the  Friars,  Guile  is  sheltered  by  the  Merchants,  Liar 
is  tenderly  cared  for  by  the  Leeches  and  the  Minstrels.102 

But  the  most  subtle  piece  of  satirical  humor,  and  also  the 
most  genuine  satire,  in  Piers  Plowman,  is  the  following: 

Having  made  confession,  a  great  multitude  were  seeking  for 
Truth.  After  devious  wanderings,  they  met  a  man  in  a  pil- 
grim's guise.  He  bore  tokens  from  Sinai,  Rome,  and  Galacia. 
They  asked  him  whence  he  came : 

"  '  Fram  synay,'  he  seyde,  '  and  f  ram  owre  lordes  sepulcre ; 
In  bethleem  and  in  babiloyne  •  I  haue  ben  in  bothe, 
In  ermonye,  in  Alisaundre  •  in  many  other  places. 
3e  may  se  bi  my  signes  •  ]?at  sitten  on  myn  hatte, 
pat  I  haue  walked  f ul  wyde  •  in  wete  and  in  drye, 
And  souste  gode  seyntes  •  for  my  soules  helth/  " 

"  Knowest  thou  ought  of  a  saint  that  men  call  Truth  ?  "  he 
is  asked.  "  Nay,  so  God  help  me,"  said  the  man,  "  never  heard 
I  palmer  ask  after  him  till  now !  " 103 

100  Prologue,  11.  46-9. 

101  P.  2, 11. 161-82. 

102  P.  2, 11.  210-32. 

103  P.  s,ll.  5 1 8-43. 


79 

The  Vision  of  Piers  the  Plowman  represents  a  period  of 
change,  when  revolution  or  reform  was  imminent  in  every 
estate  of  the  realm.  The  conditions  leading  to  these  changes 
are  faithfully  mirrored  by  Langland,  though  the  only  reform 
he  would  institute  is  that  wrought  by  love  as  an  active  princi- 
ple. The  application  of  this  moral  theory  introduces  into  his 
work  that  vast  constructive  element  which  partly  distinguishes 
the  didactic  poem  from  the  Satire.104  The  general  lack  of 
humor,  fatal  in  a  later  age  to  the  pretension  of  any  poem  claim- 
ing to  be  considered  as  satirical,  is  yet  so  characteristic  of  Eng- 
lish satirical  poetry  before  the  Renaissance  that  the  objection 
in  this  case  cannot  well  be  urged.  We  have  seen  something 
of  the  nature  of  Langland's  infrequent  humor.  Such  as  it  is, 
it  yet  marks  an  advance  beyond  much  that  has  gone  before. 
But  The  Vision  of  Piers  Plowman  illustrates  a  still  more  strik- 
ing progress  by  its  faithful  and  graphic  pictures  of  contem- 
porary life,  its  few  yet  admirable  character  studies,  and  the 
vast  range  of  its  subject-matter — which  sounds  every  note 
struck  through  the  two  preceding  centuries.  Beyond  this,  it 
is  popular,  vital,  and  spontaneous;  no  result  of  literary  tradi- 
tions, but  the  direct  and  seemingly  inevitable  product  of  exist- 
ing conditions.105 

104  See  supra,  p.  8. 

100  The  second  part  of  The  Vision — Do  Wei,  Do  Bet,  and  Do  Best — is 
rather  a  tedious  piece  of  work,  the  good  qualities  of  which  all  appear  in 
The  Vision  itself.  For  our  present  purpose  it  may  safely  be  disregarded. 


CHAPTER    III 
FROM  LANGLAND'S  IMITATORS  TO  CHAUCER 

Pierce  the  Plowman's  Crede. — Satire  under  Richard  II. — The  Peasants' 
Revolt. — Its  record  in  verse. — Gower's  Vox  Clamantis. — His  Tripartite 
Chronicle. — Lollardry. — The  Lollard  satire. — Burlesque  on  the  Council  of 
London. — The  Complaint  of  the  Plowman. — Jack  Upland. — Sir  John  Old- 
castle. — Occleve's  poem  on  Oldcastle. — A  later  poem  on  Oldcastle. — "  Satir- 
ical commonplace  "  in  this  reign. — Gower's  poem  on  the  reign  of  Richard 
II. — His  Confessio  Amantis. — Richard  the  Redeless. — Personal  satire  in 
allegorical  form. — Satire  in  the  poems  of  Chaucer. — Distinction  between 
Chaucer  and  other  satirists  of  his  time. — His  subject-matter. — His  methods. 
— Satire  in  the  General  Prologue. — Social  types. — Satire  in  the  interludes. — 
Satire  in  the  Tales.— The  Pardoner.— The  Wife  of  Bath.— The  Monk's 
Tale. — The  Continental  fabliau. — Fabliaux  in  England  before  Chaucer. — 
Chaucer's  fabliaux.— The  Nonne  Preestes  Tale.— The  Friar's  Tale.— The 
Summoner's  Tale. — The  Canon  Yeoman's  Tale. — Sir  Thopas. — The  House 
of  Fame. — Satire  in  the  minor  poems  of  Chaucer. — Chaucer's  unique  quali- 
ties as  a  satirist. — His  isolated  position. 

The  Vision  of  Piers  the  Plowman  exercised  an  immense 
popular  influence  that  resulted  in  the  adaptation  of  its  name 
to  very  different  and  far  inferior  productions.1  Among  other 
imitations,  so-called,  is  Pierce  the  Plowman's  Crede,2  which 
was  written  about  1394,  fifteen  years  after  the  final  text  of 
Langland's  poem.  The  imitation  is  confined  mainly  to  title 
and  metre,  but  includes  also  a  certain  similarity  of  subject- 
matter.  Though  less  effective  and  elaborate,  it  is  the  same 
expression  of  the  common  feeling  and  the  same  appeal,  in  turn, 
to  the  popular  sentiment.  In  homely  speech,  a  simple  country- 
man describes  his  efforts  to  find  some  truly  spiritual  man  who 
can  teach  him  his  Creed.  The  theological  knowledge  at  this 
time  demanded  of  a  layman  was  extremely  simple  and  clearly 
defined.  A  knowledge  of  Creed,  Pater  Noster,  Ave  Mary, 

1  How  the  Plowman  learned  his  Pater  Noster  (Reliquia  Antique?,  ed. 
Wright,  Vol.  I,  p.  43)  is  a  humorous  fabliau  without  any  relation  to  the 
Vision. 

*  Ed.  Skeat,  E.  E.  T.  S.,  Vol.  30. 

80 


81 

and  Commandments,  was  indeed  imperative;  but  any  further 
knowledge  was  resented  by  the  Church. 

"  May  Christ  speed  this  beginning,"  says  the  Plowman ;  "  I 
have  learned  my  Pater  Noster  and  Ave  Mary,  but  not  yet  my 
Creed.  I  seek  some  good  man  to  teach  it  me.  Many  have  I 
questioned  diligently,  but  they  are  as  ignorant  as  I.  First  of 
all,  sought  I  the  friars.  I  went  in  turn  to  the  Franciscans,  the 
Dominicans,  the  Carmelites,  and  the  Austin  Friars ;  but  all  they 
did  was  to  abuse  one  another.  They  knew  nothing  of  religion, 
and  evidently  the  truth  was  not  in  them.  Because  I  had  no 
money,  they  called  me  a  fool,  and  bade  me  go  my  way.  At 
last  I  found  a  poor  ploughman  and  told  my  trouble.  '  Trust 
not  the  friars/  said  he ;  '  the  devil  founded  them.  They  are 
the  kindred  of  Cain,  hypocrites  who  make  great  display,  but 
whose  father  is  Satan.  They  persecuted  Wyckliffe,  have  for- 
gotten the  precepts  of  Christ — nay,  not  a  single  one  of  the  Beat- 
itudes do  they  exemplify.  The  monks  are  but  little  better.' 
'  Pierce/  I  begged,  '  tell  me  thy  Creed/  '  Believe  on  God,  his 
Son,  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Church ' — and  so  he  taught  me." 

In  Pierce  the  Plowman's  Crede,  the  satire  is  exclusively 
religious  and  the  attack  is  against  the  friars  alone.  The  simple 
irony  of  the  tone  is  not  ineffective,  though  towards  its  close 
the  poem  grows  seriously  didactic.  The  extreme  realism  of 
its  descriptions,  which  would  seem  to  preclude  much  exaggera- 
tion, indicate  a  minimum  of  the  "  satirical  commonplace." 
Such  an  attack  on  the  four  mendicant  orders  is  all  the  more 
bitter  in  that  the  friars,  having  begun  as  actual  beggars,  ap- 
pealing to  the  people  at  large,  and  living  entirely  on  alms,  had 
now  achieved  wealth  and  vast  influence.  Yet  still  they  main- 
tained the  fiction  of  mendicancy — an  arrant  kind  of  fraud  that 
provoked  the  indignation  of  the  moralist  and  invited  the  attack 
of  the  satirist  of  the  period. 

The  plowman  of  Langland,  the  honest,  hard-working  peas- 
ant, is  here  again — in  Pierce  the  Plowman's  Crede — the  type 
of  the  truly  spiritual  man.  In  this  conception  there  is  some- 
thing strangely  incongruous  at  this  time  of  the  Peasant  Revolt. 
The  latter  was  a  political  rebellion,  aroused  by  long  oppression 
6 


82 

on  the  part  of  the  nobility  and  of  certain  monasteries,  and  pre- 
cipitated by  intolerable  taxation.  It  was  far  from  being  a 
religious  crusade,  and  could  not  have  afforded  a  very  favorable 
idea  of  the  spirituality  of  men  who  brutally  murdered  the 
Prior  of  St.  Edmundsbury,  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
and  the  Lord  Chief  Justice  of  England.  But  it  should  have 
impressed  upon  the  upper  classes  some  conception  of  the  spir- 
itual needs  of  the  people.  However  sympathetic  and  ideally 
true  this  exaltation  of  the  peasant  from  the  religious  stand- 
point, at  this  era  it  must  have  seemed  to  the  aristocrat  pecu- 
liarly ironical. 

During  the  early  years  of  Richard  the  Second's  unhappy 
reign,  there  were  growing  two  quite  distinct,  but  somewhat 
analogous,  movements;  one  political,  which  finally  led  to  the 
Peasants'  Revolt;  the  other  ecclesiastical,  which  resulted  in 
the  religious  agitation  of  the  Lollards.  Since  the  early  part  of 
the  century,  that  spirit  which  broke  out  in  the  violent  attack 
made  by  the  villeins  on  the  Abbey  of  St.  Edmundsbury  in  1327 
had  been  fed  by  continued  oppression  on  the  part  of  the  upper 
classes  and  by  the  heavy  tax  burdens  resulting  from  the  unfor- 
tunate foreign  ventures  following  the  Peace  of  Bretigny  in 
1360;  and  had  been  encouraged  by  the  unjust  and  totally  un- 
reasonable Statute  of  Laborers,  which  flew  in  the  face  of  every 
economic  law.  All  these  causes,  together  with  the  peasants' 
increased  realization  of  power  after  the  depopulation  caused 
by  successive  ravages  of  the  plague,  operated  in  producing 
that  terrible  uprising  among  the  Kent  and  Essex  people  in 
'  1381  known  as  "  Wat  Tyler's  Rebellion." 

If  the  peasant  class  was  led  by  these  events  of  the  summer 
of  1381  to  produce  any  political  verse  beyond  John  Ball's  dog- 
gerel rhymes,  such  verse  has  not  been  preserved  any  more  than 
the  songs  of  the  French  Jacquerie  in  the  same  century.3  The 

"See  Lenient,   Ch.   XIII.     The  rise  of  the  French  peasants  about   noo 
A.  D.  survives  in  the  song  of  the  peasants  in  Wace's  Roman  de  Rou: 
"  Nos  sumes  homes  cum  il  sunt, 
Tels  membres  avum  cum  il  unt, 
Et  altresi  granz  cors  avum, 
Et  altretant  sofrir  poum."     (See  Lenient,  pp.  n  and  12.) 


conservative  side,  however,  is  represented  by  two  surviving 
poems,  which  ring  with  indignation  against  the  presumption 
of  the  peasantry.  Both  writers,  though  utterly  opposed  to  the 
rebellion  and  out  of  sympathy  with  the  lower  classes,  yet  admit 
that  the  kingdom  is  in  a  deplorable  condition.  The  first  poem, 
in  a  kind  of  doggerel  verse  of  alternate  English  and  Latin 
lines,  asserts  that  the  poll-tax  was  at  the  bottom  of  the  trouble.4 
The  second  poem  is  a  mere  lamentation  over  the  state  of  the 
kingdom  and  the  death  of  the  good  prelate  Sudbury,  who  lost 
his  life  in  the  struggle. 

Probably  belonging  to  this  period,  and  connected  with  the 
rebellion,  is  a  Satire  on  the  Men  of  Stockton*  written  by  some 
monk  addressing  himself  in  leonine  verse  against  the  serfs  of 
his  monastery  at  Stockton.  They  have  risen  against  their 
masters,  but  have  lost  their  case  in  the  law-courts.  The  writer 
naturally  rejoices  over  their  defeat,  but  his  Satire  clearly  shows 
the  terrific  and  widespread  struggle  between  the  peasantry  and 
the  land  owners  of  the  fourteenth  century.  Its  various  allu- 
sions to  "  Allan  "  and  "  Robert  "  and  "  William  "  perhaps  refer 
to  quite  imaginary  persons.  The  burlesque  of  the  Council 
held  by  the  leaders,  and  their  subsequent  defeat,  reminds  us 
somewhat  of  the  Lollard  poem  on  the  famous  Council  of 
London.8 

It  was  soon  after  the  Peasants'  Revolt,  and  inspired  by  that 
event,  that  Gower  produced  his  sombre  and  elaborate  Latin 
poem,  Vox  Clamantis.7  Gower  is  thoroughly  a  didactic  poet, 
and  the  present  poem,  though  mainly  destructive  in  its  criti- 
cism, is  often  didactic  too.  Absolutely  devoid  of  humor,  it 
employs  argument  rather  than  invective  to  enforce  its  moral, 
and  though  occasioned  by  specific  circumstances,  is  but  very 
general  in  its  criticism.  The  Vox  Clamantis,  in  short,  all 
through  its  ten  thousand  morally  admirable — and  fatiguing — 
verses  manifests  the  same  spirit  that  shows  itself  in  English 

*  Political  Poems,  I,  224. 

8  Wright's  title;  see  Anecdota  Literaria,  pp.  49-51. 

*  See  infra,  p.  87. 

1  For  this  and  other  of  Gower's  poems  treated  here,  see  The  Works  of 
John  Gower,  ed.  Macaulay,  4  vol.,  Oxford,  1899-1902. 


84 

didactic  poetry  throughout  its  history — in  that  of  Wither,  for 
instance,  in  a  later  age.  Gower,  with  country  seats  in  both 
Kent  and  Essex,  is  in  the  very  midst  of  the  rebellion.  But  his 
sympathies  are  far  from  being  with  the  rebels.  Quite  the  con- 
trary. He  is  something  of  a  courtier,  much  more  of  a  moral- 
ist ;  stands  aside  from  the  course  of  events,  reflects,  and  finally 
delivers  himself  of  this  treatise  on  the  condition  of  the  State. 
Very  much  of  the  English  character  is  in  the  poem.  The 
tendency  to  analyze,  to  draw  a  moral,  to  instruct,  as  well  as 
the  interest  in  public  affairs  and  the  daring  utterance,  are 
characteristic  of  the  race  as  well  as  of  the  man. 

Gower  sees  in  the  recent  rebellion  the  effect  of  certain  causes 
into  which  he  purposes  to  inquire.  A  description  of  the  revolt 
under  an  allegorical  guise,  in  which  the  peasants  are  likened 
to  wild  beasts,  is  but  an  occasion  for  an  elaborate  inquiry  into 
its  sources.  The  poet  reaches  the  conclusion  that  the  whole 
calamity  is  a  visitation  from  God  for  the  sins  of  the  country. 
The  subject-matter  for  criticism  is  now  shifted  to  the  immoral- 
ities of  the  various  classes  of  society.  The  idea  that  chance 
rules  the  destinies  of  men  is  argued  out  of  existence,  to  the 
poet's  satisfaction,  and  replaced  by  the  demonstration  that 
man's  free-will  alone  orders  his  destiny.  At  great  length, 
Gower  inveighs  against  the  vices  of  the  clergy.  The  com- 
plaints are  conventional,  but  strongly  urged.  They  are  the 
charges  that  began  in  the  twelfth  century  and  have  since  fur- 
nished inexhaustible  food  for  satire.  Gower  is  implacably 
stern,  and  holds  the  clergy,  as  the  supposed  spiritual  guides 
and  examplars  of  the  people,  accountable  for  the  nation's  im- 
morality. If  the  shepherd  be  false,  he  cries,  how  can  the  sheep 
be  true  ?  "  The  hungry  sheep  look  up  and  are  not  fed."  He 
deals  at  length  with  the  cloistered  clergy,  the  monks,  and  also 
the  friars ;  ending  with  a  reference  to  Wireker's  "  Novus  Ordo 
Burnelli  " ;  and  a  contention  that  the  "  Order  of  the  Ass  "  is 
now  the  dominant  one.  After  the  clergy  have  been  sufficiently 
reproved,  the  soldier,  the  serf,  the  merchant,  the  lawyer,  and 
the  officers  of  the  law,  are  treated,  in  turn,  according  to  the 
methods  of  the  now  conventional  "  class  satire."  Each  class 


85 

is  weighed  and  found  wanting ;  but  Gower  is  not  without  hope 
that  the  country  may  be  redeemed  by  a  moral  purgation.  The 
Vox  Clamantis  is  so  largely  a  compilation  from  Ovid,  Alex- 
ander Neckham,  and  Nigellus  Wireker,8  that  one  wonders  how 
far  it  may  be  trusted  as  a  picture  and  criticism  of  contem- 
porary life. 

Gower's  Tripartite  Chronicle,  a  supplement  to  the  Vox  Cla- 
mantis, written  after  the  accession  of  Henry  IV,  is  in  leonine 
hexameters,  and  divided  into  three  parts.  Part  I. — Human 
Work — is  a  narrative  of  the  events  of  1387-1388,  in  which 
Richard  II  figures  as  the  villain;  Gloucester  (the  Swan), 
Arundel  (the  horse),  and  Warwick  (the  bear),  as  the  heroes. 
Part  II. — Hellish  Work — details  the  eight  following  years  of 
Richard's  miserable  reign  and  the  tragic  fate  of  the  three  great 
dukes  ;  while  Part  III. — Work  in  Christ — narrates  the  coming 
of  Henry  Bolinbroke  and  the  downfall  and  wretched  end  of 
Richard.  Although  sixteen  years  intervened  between  the  com- 
position of  Vox  Clamantis  and  of  its  sequel,  the  two  are  writ- 
ten in  an  identical  spirit.  But  the  later  poem,  though  largely 
and  fearlessly  personal,  loses  in  dignity  as  a  polemic  in  that  it 
was  written  after  the  conditions  it  arraigns  had  ceased  to  exist. 

But  apart  from  this  more  or  less  direct  expression  in  verse, 
the  Peasants'  Revolt  holds  another  interest  for  us  depending 
on  its  connection,  so  the  opponents  of  Lollardry  asserted,  with 
the  ecclesiastical  movement  led  by  WyclifTe.  For  the  time 
being  this  movement  was  equally  unsuccessful,  but  in  the  end 
it  contributed  to  the  religious  emancipation  of  the  kingdom. 

The  growing  national  sense  in  England,  intensified  by  Ed- 
ward the  Third's  foreign  victories,  further  increased  that 
resentment  against  papal  domination  which  had  been  accumu- 
lating for  at  least  two  centuries.  Wycliffe  voiced  this  common 
feeling  and  also  the  old  complaint  of  the  State  against  the 
wealth  of  the  Church,  which  he  deprecated  not  as  a  political 
but  as  a  religious  evil.  At  first  John  of  Gaunt,  for  reasons 
of  his  own,  lent  his  active  support  to  Wyckliffe  personally, 
until  the  great  schoolman,  advancing  far  beyond  his  original 

8  See  The  Works  of  John  Gower,  ed.  Macaulay,  Vol.  4,  Introduction. 


86 

}  position,  uttered  his  heresy  against  transubstantiation,  and 
•  stood  heroically  alone.  Wycliffe's  itinerant  preachers,  later 
very  generally  distributed  over  the  country,  vigorously  preached 
greater  purity  of  life  among  the  clergy  and  the  spiritual  bene- 
fits arising  from  clerical  poverty ;  and  thus  gained  for  the  new 
movement  a  large  and  rapidly  increasing  following  among  the 
people.  Alarmed  by  the  vigor  of  the  heretical  sect,  the  Church 
began  those  active  measures  for  its  suppression  which  took 
shape  at  first  in  the  attempted  trial  of  Wyckliffe  by  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury  and  that  energetic  bigot,  Courtenay, 
Bishop  of  London,  at  Westminster,  in  1377.  The  riot  that 
followed  the  attempt  postponed  the  affair,  and  meanwhile 
occurred  the  Peasants'  Revolt,  which  afforded  an  excellent 
opportunity  for  clergy  of  the  anti-Wyclifnte  party  to  cast 
additional  slurs  upon  the  Reformer  and  his  followers,  by 
asserting  that  Lollardry  had  been  at  the  bottom  of  the  recent 
uprising;  that  John  Ball  was  a  Lollard;  and  Wycliffe  a  pro- 
moter of  sedition,  privy  conspiracy,  and  rebellion. 

It  was  in  1381  that  the  first  protest  in  verse  appeared,  in 
some  six  hundred  lines  of  academic  Latin,  the  work  of  a  con- 
servative friar.9  Heretofore  religious  satire  had  come  from 
the  advocates  of  reform  against  the  dominant  ecclesiastical 
bodies.  Now  it  comes  from  a  member  of  one  of  those  bodies 
against  a  religious  sect,  a  species  of  the  satire  that  is  to  con- 
tinue for  three  centuries  and  over — the  strife  between  Catholic 
and  Protestant,  High  Churchman  and  Puritan,  Episcopalian 
and  Dissenter,  from  the  fourteenth  through  the  eighteenth 
century. 

"  Lord,  root  out  from  Thy  garden  these  noxious  tares,  the 
Lollards !  "  prays  the  orthodox  friar.  "  These  Lollards,  out- 
wardly meek,  within  are  ravening  wolves,  arousing  strife 
among  the  clergy,  destroying  the  peace  of  the  kingdom — " : 

"  Johannes  Balle  hoc  docuit, 
Quando  morti  succubuit 
Propter  suam  nequitiam. 
Quod  quidem  nidus  tenuit 
Pullos  pravos,  et  aluit 

•  Political  Poems,  1,231. 


87 

In  regni  ignominiam. 
Monstrans  Wycleffe  familiam, 

Causam  brigae  primariam, 
Quae  totum  regnum  terruit. 

Praebens  experientiam 
Quam  gravidam  stultitiam 

Haec  secta  vulgus  inbuit."10 

The  various  heresies  of  the  Lollards  are  enumerated,  and  it 
incidentally  appears  that  our  satirist's  ire  is  chiefly  aroused  by 
the  bitterness,  as  he  alleges,  of  their  slanderous  attacks  upon  the 
friars!  This  union  of  personal  and  religious  invective  gains 
its  vitality  and  interest  from  its  source  of  inspiration  in  burn- 
ing contemporary  issues.  It  represents  the  orthodox  party, 
but  has  its  counterpart  in  favor  of  the  Lollards  in  a  Latin  poem 
on  the  Council  of  London,  written  probably  in  the  year  follow- 
ing that  event.11 

In  May,  1382,  an  ecclesiastical  council,  presided  over  by 
Courtenay,  now  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  met  in  London  to 
pronounce  judgment  on  the  various  heresies  of  the  Wycliff- 
ites.  A  terrible  earthquake  that  occurred  on  the  day  of  assem- 
bly was  said  by  the  Lollards  to  announce  the  wrath  of  God  on 
the  Prelates  and  persecutors;  but  Courtenay  interpreted  it 
with  an  opposite  signification,  and  coolly  pursued  his  course 
amid  the  terror  of  his  colleagues.  At  this  time  one  of  the  now 
chronic  recurrences  of  the  plague  was  thinning  the  population, 
and  floods  in  the  previous  December  had  wrought  widespread 
havoc.  All  these  circumstances  are  utilized  by  our  Lollard 
poem,  which  begins  with  a  lugubrious  wail  over  the  condition 
of  England.  "  Pestilence,  earthquake,  wind,  and  flood,  have 
lately  attested  the  anger  of  God  at  the  wickedness  of  the 
people.  The  nation  is  desperately  depraved,  for  the  impiety 
of  prelates,  monks,  and  friars,  has  vitiated  the  whole  kingdom. 
That  all  this  is  true  of  the  Benedictines,  also,  I  know  by  ex- 

10  «  This  fact  John  Ball  taught  us  before  he  died  for  his  iniquity ;  because 
that  nest  held  bad  chickens  and  nourished  them  for  the  degradation  of  the 
country,   showing   that   the   brood   of   Wycliffe   was   the  first   cause   of  the 
rebellion  that  terrified  the  whole  kingdom,  giving  evidence  with  what  mis- 
erable folly  this  sect  hath  imbued  the  vulgar." 

11  Monumenta  Franciscana,  Vol.  i,  p.  591  f ;  Political  Poems,  i,  253. 


88 

perience ;  for  I  spent  my  novitiate  among  them,  but  escaped  in 
time.  Wycliffe  has  attacked  these  iniquities,  and  is  therefore 
persecuted."  The  writer  now  passes  into  a  burlesque  account 
of  the  London  council12  assembled  to  try  the  heretics. 
Wycliffe,  being  ill,  was  represented  by  his  chief  lieutenant, 
Nicholas  of  Hereford. 

"  John  Welles  opened  fire  upon  the  Lollards  in  a  pompous, 
senseless  speech,  which  Nicholas  of  Hereford  confuted  with 
ease,"  says  the  poem.  "  But  the  attack  was  continued  by  Goy- 
doun,  a  layman  clothed  like  a  monk,  and  by  Crophorne,  with 
his  worthless  jargon.  After  the  monks,  began  the  friars.  A 
Franciscan  named  Merton  chattered  like  a  raven,  and  Whop- 
pelode,  a  famous  liar,  talked  to  no  purpose  " — and  so  on, 
through  the  remainder  of  the  controversy,  in  which  the'  Lol- 
lards are,  of  course,  finally  triumphant.  The  charges  so  elab- 
orately urged  against  the  clergy  are  in  substance  those  brought 
by  previous  satire  of  this  type,  but  the  remarkable  feature  of 
the  poem  is  the  change  of  tone  from  invective  to  burlesque 
when  the  writer  describes  the  ecclesiastical  council. 

This  burlesque  is  interesting  as  the  satirical  picture  of  an 
actual  event,  and  as,  in  a  measure,  a  personal  Satire  on  the 
various  anti-Wyclifftte  clergy.  There  is  a  distinct  gain,  too, 
in  the  humor  of  the  latter  part,  though  the  whole  is  inferior 
in  this  respect  to  a  contemporary  English  song  against  the 
friars.  The  latter  was  written  probably  by  some  Lollard;  for 
at  this  time  the  friars  were  the  especial  objects  of  Lollard 
attack.13  The  tone  of  this  song  is  at  first  ironical,  finally 
directly  satirical,  yet  throughout  of  considerable  humor. 
"  Friars  are  given  to  heavy  penance,"  cries  the  ironical  Lol- 
lard ;  "  one  may  see  as  much  in  their  appearance.  I  have  lived 
forty  years,  and  ne'er  saw  I  fatter  men.  Shameful  it  is  that 
they  should  be  compelled  to  seek  their  bread  from  house  to 
house — these  poor  mendicants !  With  them  they  carry  articles 
to  please  the  women ;  let  the  goodman  beware !  Clever  traders 
they  are  and  drive  a  hard  bargain,  but  they  know  not  virtue. 

12  Cf.  p.  83,  supra. 

13  Monument a  Franciscana,  i,  601  f. ;  Political  Poems,  i,  263. 


89 

Verily,  for  a  pair  of  shoes,  they  will  absolve  a  man  for  the 
murder  of  all  his  kindred.  Hell  is  so  filled  with  friars  that 
soon  no  room  will  be  left  for  other  people  " : 

"  Ful  wysely  can  thai  preche  and  say ; 
But  as  thai  preche  no  thing  do  thai. 
I  was  a  frere  ful  many  a  day, 

Therefor  the  sothe  I  wate. 
Bot  when  I  sawe  that  thair  lyvyng 
,   Acordyd  not  to  thair  prechyng, 

Of  I  cast  my   frer  clothing, 
And  wyghtly  went  my  gate. 
Other  leve  ne  toke  I  none, 
fro  ham  when  I  went, 
Bot  toke  ham  to  the  devel  ychone, 
the  priour  and  the  covent." 

Both  in  form  and  in  tone  this  Song  against  the  Friars  is 
perhaps  the  most  popular  piece  of  satirical  poetry  we  have  yet 
considered.  But  we  find  no  such  humor  in  that  far  more 
elaborate  religious  poem,  The  Complaint  of  the  Plowman, 
which  followed  perhaps  in  1394,  and  is  entirely  argumentative 
and  didactic.14  This  earnest  religious  poem  was  written  pos- 
sibly by  the  author  of  Pierce  the  Plowman's  Crede.  Though 
its  sober  allegory  is  in  no  wise  satirical,  its  contemporary 
significance  is  great. 

The  writer  professes  neutrality  towards  the  two  religious 
parties.  He  overhears  in  a  wood  a  dispute  between  two  birds, 
a  griffon15  and  a  pelican ;  the  first,  the  advocate  of  the  Romish 
church,  the  second,  its  opponent.  The  pelican  brings  the  con- 
ventional charges  against  the  clergy,  and  contrasts  with  these 
conditions  the  humility  and  poverty  of  Christ.  Saint  Peter 
held  the  key  of  heaven  and  hell,  but — 

"  Peter  was  never  so  great  a  fole 
To  leave  his  key  with  such  a  lorell, 
Or  take  such  cursed  soch  a  tole, 
He  was  advised  no  thing  well. 
I  trowe  they  have  the  key  of  hell; 

Their  master  is  of  that  place  marshall; 

14  Political  Poems,  I,  304-46. 

15  Not  the  mythical  creature,  but  the  vulture. 


90 

For  there  they  dressen  hem  to  dwel, 
And  with  false  Lucifer  there  to  fall." 

Yet  such  men  are  permitted  to  preach.  The  griffon  inquires 
the  pelican's  opinion  of  the  secular  clergy.  "  They  are^haughty, 
sensual,  selfish,  extortionate,"  replies  the  pelican.  "  What  of 
their  works  ?  "  asks  the  griffon ;  and  he  is  told  they  have  wan- 
dered far  from  the  pathway  trod  by  their  Master.  "  As  for  the 
friars,  they  are  exposed  in  Pierce  the  Plowman's  Crede,"  says 
the  pelican.  The  griffon  now  retorts  with  an  angry  argument 
in  defense  of  the  clergy,  and  becomes  more  and  more  infuri- 
ated at  the  pelican's  replies.  This  exchange  of  argument  con- 
tinues through  almost  a  thousand  lines,  and  is  anything  but 
exhilarating  reading.  Finally  the  griffon  flies  away,  to  return 
soon  with  an  army  of  birds  of  prey,  and  the  pelican  retreats 
to  seek  the  aid  of  the  phoenix,  who  appears  after  a  season 
and  utterly  routs  the  griffon  and  his  allies. 

Both  in  use  of  the  vernacular  and  in  sober  argumentative 
tone,  the  tradition  of  The  Complaint  of  the  Plowman  is  con- 
tinued in  the  long  Lollard  poetical  tract,  Jack  Upland,  which, 
with  the  reply  thereto  by  an  author  styling  himself  Daw 
Topias,  stretches  out  through  almost  four  thousand  short  allit- 
erative lines.16  Henry  the  Fourth's  accession  to  the  throne  in 
1399  brought  increased  danger  of  persecution  to  the  Lollards ; 
and  this  danger  expressed  itself  in  the  terrible  Statute  "  De 
Haeretico  Comburendo,"  of  1401,  which  ordained  the  burning 
of  any  convicted  of  heresy  by  the  ecclesiastical  courts.  Such 
extreme  measures,  though  not  preventing  the  growth  of  the 
new  sect,  rendered  the  Lollards  more  secret  and  circumspect 
in  circulating  their  propaganda.  In  this  very  year  was  indited, 
it  may  be  by  one  of  Wycliffe's  itinerant  preachers,  this  violent 
diatribe  against  the  friars,  Jack  Upland.  The  author  begins: 

"  I,  Jacke  Upland,  make  my  mone  to  very  God, 
and  to  all  true  in  Christ, 
that  antichrist  and  his  disciples, 
by  colour  of  holines, 
walking  and  deceiving  Christs  church 
by  many  false  figures — 

18  Political  Poems,  2,  16-1 14. 


91 

do  infest  this  land  with  abominable  vices.  The  church  of 
Rome  is  antichrist,  and  the  worst  of  its  sects  is  that  of  the 
friarsl"  Then  follows  a  long  series  of  charges,  accusing  the 
friars  of  every  imaginable  impiety.  Jack  Upland  has  departed 
very  far  from  his  master  Wycliffe's  abstruse  scholastic  method 
of  reasoning,  but  he  applies  the  foundation  of  his  master's 
doctrine,  common-sense.  His  argument  is  one  to  appeal  to 
the  most  illiterate: 

"  Go  now  forth,  and  fraine  your  clerks, 
and  ground  ye  you  in  God's  law, 
and  when  he  han  assoiled  me 
that  I  have  said  sadly, 
in  Truth  I  shall  soile  thee 
of  thine  orders, 
and  save  thee  to  heaven." 

To  this  lengthy  arraignment  a  friar,  calling  himself  Daw 
Topias,  replies  with  far  more  vindictiveness  and  far  less  rea- 
son, but,  most  significantly,  meets  the  reformers  on  their  own 
ground:  he  uses  English  and  simple  speech,  and  appeals  to 
the  people.  Charges  are  brought  against  Wycliffe  and  his 
followers,  the  Lollard's  various  accusations  are  met  in  some 
fashion;  and  to  all  of  this  Jack  Upland  again  replies  in  the 
same  uncouth  strain. 

Though   wholly   an   argumentative  poem,   quite   devoid  of 
humor,  this  long  religious  tract  is  interesting  for  its  use  of 
the  vernacular,  its  popular  tone,  and  its  treatment  of  contem- 
-porary  subject-matter.     But  it  is  in  every  respect  less  interest- 
ing than  the  two  last  echoes  of  the  Lollard  heresy  in  verse, 
which  were  evoked,  one  by  the  first  defection,  the  other  by  the 
execution,  in  1417,  of  Sir  John  Oldcastle — the  latter  an  event  < 
that   marked  the   culmination   of   Lollard   persecution   under  * 
Henry  V. 

The  first  of  these  two  poems,  by  the  poet  Occleve,17  was  writ- 
ten probably  in  1415,  and  reads  like  an  expostulation,  addressed 

17  It  seems  best  to  conclude  just  here  the  treatment  of  the  satire  on  Old- 
castle,  though  we  are  thereby  carried  perhaps  thirty  years  beyond  our 
present  period.  This  explains  the  introduction  of  Occleve's  poem  before 
the  last  mention  of  Gower. 


92 

to  Oldcastle  by  an  apparently  friendly  person,  concerning  the 
knight's  heretical  opinions.18  Oldcastle  is  besought  to  repent, 
renounce  these  devil's  doctrines,  and  return  to  the  bosom  of 
the  church.  Let  him  not  argue  about  matters  of  faith.  That 
is  not  our  business.  The  poet  passes  on  to  an  enumeration  of 
the  Lollard  doctrines  and  an  attempted  refutation  of  them, 
with  incidental  invective  against  the  heretics,  continuing 
through  many  stanzas;  ending  in  a  final  appeal  to  this  arch 
heretic  to  turn  and  repent  him  of  his  damnable  heresy. 

But  Oldcastle  was  deaf  to  Occleve's  friendly  warning.  He 
persisted  in  his  bold  but  fruitless  resistance,  and  finally  met 
the  martyr's  death  in  1417.  It  is  perhaps  in  the  following 
year  that  some  ardent  opponent  of  heresy  takes  this  tragedy 
as  a  text  for  a  bitter  diatribe  against  Lollardry,  and  so  writes 
the  sequel  to  Occleve's  more  kindly  poem  of  three  years  be- 
fore.19 The  author  makes  frequent  allusions  to  Oldcastle,  on 
whose  name  he  puns  through  several  stanzas  with  more  labor 
than  wit : 

"Hit  is  unkyndly  for  a  knight, 
That  shuld  a  kynges  castel  kepe, 
To  bable  the  bibel  day  and  night, 
In  restyng  tyme  when  he  shuld  slepe, 
And  carfoly  awey  to  crepe, 
For  alle  the  chief  of  chivalrie, 
Wei  aught  hym  to  waile  and  wepe, 
That  suyche  lust  hath  in  lollardie." — 

and  so  on,  through  nineteen  stanzas,  in  the  characteristically 
bitter  tone  of  religious  controversy  in  all  ages. 

Ill 

Richard's  reign  was  productive  of  still  another  species  of 
pseudo-satirical  verse:  that  general  lament  which  has  be- 
come conventional  and  which  may  safely  be  supposed  to  em- 
body the  largest  amount  of  "  satirical  commonplace."  We 
have  now  one  of  these  jeremiads  over  the  melancholy  times 

™Hoccleve's  Minor  Poems,  ed.  Furnivall,  E.  E.  T.  S.,  Ex.  Sen,  61,  p.  8. 
19  Ancient  Songs  and  Ballads,  ed.  Ritson,  Vol.  I,  p.  121  ;  Political  Poems, 

2,    243. 


93 

written  in  the  same  peculiar  English-Latin  verse  used  in  the 
ballad  on  the  Peasants'  Revolt  :20 

"  Syngyn  y  wolde,  but,  alas ! 

descendant  prospera  grata; 
Englond  sum  tyme  was 

regnorum  gemma  vocata; 
Of  manhood  the  flowre 

ibi  quondam  floruit  omnis; 
Now  gon  ys  that  honowr, 

traduntur   talia  somnis."21 

Somewhat  more  vital  than  this  trite  lament,  in  so  far  as 
they  were  inspired  by  specific  events,  are  two  short  poems,  one 
in  English,  on  the  earthquake  of  1382  ;22  the  other  in  Latin, 
on  the  pestilence  of  I39I.23  Both  are  equally  didactic,  look- 
ing upon  these  calamities  as  the  vengeance  of  God.  The  ris- 
ing of  the  "  Commons,"  pestilence,  earthquake,  the  degrada- 
tion of  the  Church  are  not  themes  that  readily  lend  themselves 
to  a  humorous  treatment;  hence  it  is  not  surprising  to  find 
both  the  Latin  and  the  English  poem  heavy  and  severe. 

But  allowing  for  inevitable  exaggeration  and  customary 
lament,  there  was  ample  excuse  for  the  clerics'  wail  over  the 
condition  of  the  Church,  which  was  as  bad  as  it  had  ever  been, 
and  the  corruption  of  society,  whose  follies  were  encouraged 
by  a  luxurious  court.  The  king  had  now  freed  himself  from 
all  restraint,  and  was  making  enemies  of  both  commons  and 
nobility  alike.  Toward  the  close  of  the  reign,  when  these  con- 
ditions had  grown  worse,  we  are  presented  with  another 
diatribe  against  popular  vices.  This  is  a  Latin  poem  of  three 
hundred  elegiac  lines — a  form  well  chosen,  for  an  elegy  it  is — 
by  the  learned  and  pessimistic  poet  of  the  Vox  Clamantis, 
"  the  moral  Gower."  The  poem  has  for  name  and  for  sub- 
ject-matter "  the  manifold  pestilence  of  vices,  by  which  our 
land  was  especially  visited  during  the  reign  of  Richard  II " ; 
and  declares  it  the  poet's  duty  to  speak  out  in  times  of  national 

20  See  supra,  p.  83. 

21  Political  Poems,  i,  270. 

23  Ibid.,  i,  250;  Arch&ologia,  Vol.  18,  p.  26. 
23  Political  Poems,  i,  279. 


94 

danger.  Gower  divides  his  poem  into  several  sections  and 
devotes  each  of  them  to  the  reprehension  of  a  particular  vice. 
Such  a  method  is  ominous  of  deadly  dullness  at  the  outset. 
The  brilliant  illustrative  method  of  the  classical  satirists,2* 
and  the  less  interesting  but  still  far  from  ineffective  method 
of  personification  employed  by  Langland,25  are  both  disdained. 
Gower  prefers  the  orderly,  dry,  generalized  attack  on  utter 
abstractions. 

It  is  difficult  to  imagine  anything  more  dreary,  more  remote 
from  actual  life,  or  less  calculated  to  affect  in  the  slightest 
degree  the  society  which  it  arraigns.  The  same  criticism 
applies  without  modification  to  a  second  Latin  poem,  in  hex- 
ameter verse,  written  by  Gower  at  about  the  same  period — 
The  Search  for  Light.  Here  the  moralist  uses  a  different 
method,  and  instead  of  inveighing  against  abstractions,  at- 
tacks, in  equally  characteristic  medieval  fashion,  the  various 
social  classes,  from  the  Court  of  Rome  to  the  public  plunderer. 
The  poet  seeks  in  vain  for  light  at  Rome  or  in  the  Church  at 
large,  which  is  ruled  by  simony.  Monks  and  secular  clergy 
alike  are  dwelling  in  utter  darkness.  Kings  and  nobles,  who 
trust  only  the  arm  of  flesh,  cannot  furnish  light ;  or  merchants, 
whom  usury  has  corrupted;  or  lawyers,  who  are  ruled  by 
bribery. 

So  also  in  the  prologue  to  his  Confessio  Amantis  Gower 
does  not  fail  to  moralize  over  and  lament  the  deplorable  con- 
dition of  the  country,  the  loss  of  the  old  virtues,  and  the  uni- 
versal prevalence  of  vices  that  have  caused 

"  This  newe   sect  of  Lollardie, 
And  also  many  an  heresie." 

And  the  poet  proceeds  in  the  body  of  his  voluminous  treatise 
to  "  satirize  "  the  deadly  sins  by  the  somewhat  novel  fashion 
of  telling  a  story  to  illustrate  each  one  of  the  seven. 

Apart  from  its  prologue,  however,  the  subject-matter  of  the 
Confessio  Amantis  has  no  direct  relation  to  its  times.  It 
remained  for  the  author  of  The  Vision  of  Piers  the  Plowman 

24  See  supra,  p.  15  f . ;  and  cf.  p.  162  f.,  infra. 
28  See  supra,  p.  73. 


95 

to  review  the  social  and  political  conditions  of  Richard's  reign 
and  sum  them  all  up  in  that  terrible  indictment  against  royal 
maladministration  which  Professor  Skeat  calls  Richard  the 
Redeless™     In  the  same  alliterative  measure  of  his  earlier  i 
poem,  in  somewhat  the  same  allegorical  style,  Langland,27  the/ 
genuine  censor  of  society,  voices  the  protest  of  the  people 
against  the  corruptions  of  the  king's  court  and  reign,  wel- 
comes the  popular  favorite,  Bolingbroke,  and  directly  rebukes 
the  redeless  Richard  for  his  misdeeds: 

While  King  Richard  is  warring  in  Ireland,  strange  tidings 
have  reached  the  poet  in  Bristol.  They  say  that  Henry  of 
Bolingbroke  has  entered  England  by  the  east.  The  poet  is 
troubled,  for  he  has  hitherto  been  loyal  to  the  redeless  king, 
and  has  hoped  that  he  would  amend  his  youthful  faults.  He 
now  writes  this  treatise  to  teach  men  the  lesson  of  Richard's 
reign,  the  sad  results  of  wilfulness.  The  poet  passes  into  an 
exhaustive,  sober,  and  straightforward  account  of  the  un- 
toward measures  of  Richard's  whole  administration.  The  loy- 
alty of  his  subjects  has  been  estranged.  The  king  has  de- 
spoiled the  nation  in  order  to  enrich  a  few  favorites.  Richard 
came  to  the  crown  under  most  auspicious  conditions,  but  by 
his  own  misconduct  he  has  deliberately  destroyed  himself. 
His  counsellors  were  foolish  and  selfish  young  men,  and 
through  favoritism  he  lost  the  heart  of  his  people.  The  Eagle, 
Henry  of  Bolingbroke,  spreads  his  wings  to  shelter  the  nation. 
The  Eagle  will  destroy  the  King's  evil  favorites,  such  as 
Bushey,  Scrope,  and  Greene,  who  are  thus  alluded  to: 

"  Thus  baterid  this  bred  on  busshes  abouste, 
And  gaderid  gomes  on  grene  ther  as  they  walkyed, 
That  all  the  schroff  and  schroup  sondrid  ffrom  other." 

We  have  next  a  parable  of  the  Hart  and  the  Adder,  bringing 
in  the  Horse  (Arundel),  the  Bear  (Warwick),  and  the  Swan 
(Gloucester).  The  inference  seems  to  be  that  in  the  ruin  of 

38  Piers  the  Plowman  and  Richard  the  Redeless,  ed.  Skeat,  2  vols.,  1886; 
under  the  name  of  Alliterative  Poem  on  the  Deposition  of  King  Richard  II, 
ed.  Wright,  Cam.  Soc.  Pub.,  Vol.  3  ;  Political  Poems,  i,  368. 

27 1  here  follow  Professor  Skeat's  attribution  of  the  authorship  to 
"  William  Langland."  The  question  is  unsettled. 


96 

these  three  noblemen  Richard  has  destroyed  his  best  friends. 
Another  parable  tells  us  how,  when  the  partridge  leaves  her 
eggs,  another  sits  on  them;  but  the  young  birds,  if  ill-nour- 
ished, remember  the  voice  of  their  mother.  So  the  nestlings 
know  the  voice  of  the  Eagle,  Bolingbroke,  though  he  has  been 
long  absent  from  them,  and  they  tell  him  of  the  woes  of 
Richard's  two  and  twenty  years.  Then  the  other  fowls,  heavy 
for  hurt  of  the  Horse  (Arundel),  look  to  the  eagle  for  leader- 
ship. Now  the  poet  leaves  this  allegorical  strain,  to  dwell 
severely  on  the  luxury  of  the  court,  foolish  fashions  in  dress, 
and  Richard's  extravagance  with  money  gained  from  oppres- 
sion of  the  poor.  The  parliament  has  been  degraded  into  the 
instrument  of  the  king's  will,  he  cries,  and  the  voice  of  the 
people  has  been  silenced. 

Richard  the  Redeless,  the  protest  of  one  speaking  for  the 
people,  forms  a  linjc  between  such  criticism  as  Gower's,  which 
is  the  meditation  of  a  thoughtful  scholar,  and  that  thoroughly 
popular  satire  on  these  same  circumstances  and  events  which 
sprang  directly  from  the  people  themselves.  As  an  illustra- 
tion of  the  last-named  type,  the  remarkable  ballad  on  King 
Richard's  ministers  is  as  truly  popular  a  production  as  could 
be  desired,  and  would  seem  to  indicate  that  a  large  body  of 
such  verse  was  once  in  existence.  As  we  have  seen  from 
Richard  the  Redeless,  the  king,  by  his  headstrong  violence, 
extravagance,  and  even  cruelty,  had  been  rapidly  alienating 
the  sympathy  of  Nobility  and  of  Commons,  and  finally  of  the 
people  at  large.  The  Earl  of  Warwick  (the  Bear),  his  for- 
mer Councillor,  had  been  exiled;  the  Earl  of  Arundel  (the 
Horse),  condemned  and  executed  in  a  single  day;  the  Duke 
of  Gloucester  (the  Swan),  Richard's  uncle,  imprisoned  in 
Calais,  where  he  suddenly  died, — made  away  with,  it  was 
openly  asserted,  through  the  connivance  of  the  king.  More- 
over, Richard  surrounded  himself  with  a  set  of  unscrupulous 
favorites,  who  managed  the  court  to  suit  themselves  and  were 
very  justly  the  objects  of  deep  and  widespread  popular  hatred. 
In  1399,  just  before  Richard's  reign  came  to  an  end,  when 
Henry  of  Bolingbroke  had  already  landed  in  England  and  was 


97 

soon  to  execute  summary  vengeance  on  the  royal  favorites, 
there  sprang  from  some  anonymous  source  this  very  popular 
ballad,  to  do  good  work,  doubtless,  for  the  Lancastrian 
cause  :28 

"  There   is   a   busch  that   is    forgrowe ; 
Crop  hit  welle,  and  hold  hit  lowe, 

or  elles  hit  wolle  be  wilde. 
The  long  gras  that  is  so  grene, 

Hit  must  be  mowe,  and  raked  clene; 
forgrowen  hit  hath  the  fellde." 

The  fates  of  Gloucester,  Arundel,  and  Warwick,  the  Swan, 
the  Horse,  and  the  Bear,  respectively,  are  referred  to  regret- 
fully. The  Eagle,  Lancaster,  is  welcomed:  he  will  destroy 
the  bush,  the  bag,  the  green  rank  grass. 

In  this  we  have  a  union  of  personal  and  political  satire  quite 
new  to  English  literature.  Though  in  a  crude  way,  the  people 
are  at  last  learning  to  express  themselves  about  political 
affairs.  That  this  feeling  against  the  favorites  is  not,  how- 
ever, confined  to  one  class,  is  manifest  in  a  Latin  poem  writ- 
ten on  the  expected  arrival  of  the  new  ruler.29  Some  general 
complaints  against  the  tyranny  of  the  nobles,  the  arrogance  of 
the  court,  and  the  oppression  of  the  people,  end  in  a  stanza 
that  singles  out  Scrope,  Earl  of  Wiltshire,  Bagot,  and  Vere, 
for  especial  condemnation.  These  men  are  obnoxious  not 
only  to  the  body  of  the  people  but  to  the  clerical  classes  also: 

"  Fraus  latet  illorum  propter  thesaurum, 
Scrope,  Bagge,   Ver,  Dumus,  tormentorum  parat  humus 
Damnarunt   forti   justorum  corpora   morti, 
Sanguis  qui  quorum  vindicta  clamat  eorum."30 

This  poem  closes  the  formally  satirical  poetry  of  Richard's 
reign — satire  more  extensive  by  far  both  in  quantity  and  in 

K  Political  Poems,  i,  363  f. 

29  Ibid.,  i,366f. 

30  This  Latin  is  so  execrable  that  it  may  be  well  to  attempt  some  sort  of 
translation:    "Their   fraud    for   the   sake   of    money   lies   hidden,    but   the 
grave  of  the  tormentors  is  being  prepared  (  ?).     They  have  condemned  the 
bodies  of  the  just  to   a  terrible  death,   and  the  blood  of  these  cries  out 
for  vengeance." 


98 

range  than  that  of  any  other  period  previous  to  the  English 
Renaissance.  The  great  Peasant  Revolt,  pestilence,  earth- 
quake, heresy,  royal  follies,  in  addition  to  the  persistent  im- 
morality of  the  clergy,  furnished  such  a  variety  of  subject- 
matter  for  satirical  treatment  as  perhaps  no  other  reign  before 
or  since  has  ever  known. 

IV 

Leaving  far  behind  the  moral  platitudes  of  Gower,  the  stern 
diatribes  of  Langland,  the  lamentations  of  clerks,  and  the 
ballads  of  the  people,  we  pass  for  a  time  into  the  more  genial 
atmosphere  of  Chaucer's  astonishing  pictures  of  life.31  The 
satire  of  the  Canterbury  Tales  is  chiefly  incidental,  and  the 
subject-matter  utilized  is  mainly  conventional,  but  the  method 
is  something  astoundingly  new  and  effective.  There  is  no 
trace  of  the  moral  indignation  of  Langland,  nothing  of  the 
didactic  tendency  of  Gower;  no  voice  of  the  people  speaks 
here,  no  clerk  laments  in  platitudes  the  decadence  of  the  age. 
The  satire  of  Chaucer  is  not  that  of  a  reformer;  hence  no 
polemic  note  is  sounded.  He  has  no  cause  to  gain,  no  lesson 
to  teach,  no  prophesy  to  cry  aloud  in  the  streets;  hence  the 
utter  absence  of  the  qualities  that  color  and  universally  charac- 
terize the  satirical  productions  of  his  contemporaries.  Chau- 
cer's satire  is,  with  the  chief  exception  of  Sir  Thopas,  mainly 
social;32  and  so  far  from  excluding  and  concealing  the  per- 
sonality of  its  author,  as  has  heretofore  been  the  case  in  Eng- 
lish satirical  poetry,  it  depends  as  much  on  the  satirist's  indi- 
viduality as  does  the  satire  of  Horace  and  of  Pope.33  The 
gulf  separating  Chaucer  from  Langland  and  the  popular  satire 
of  his  period  is  that  between  the  reformer,  who  is  but  inci- 
dentally a  man  of  letters,  and  the  man  of  letters  who  is  but 
incidentally,  and  even  then  unconsciously,  a  reformer.  The 
gulf  separating  Chaucer  from  such  a  moralizer  as  Gower  is 
that  between  the  true  satirist  and  the  merely  didactic  poet. 
Those  social,  political,  and  religious  phenomena,  that  moved 

81  The  Complete  Works  of  Chaucer,  ed.  Skeat,  6  vols.,  Oxford,  1894. 
32  See  supra,  p.  32  f. 
*Ibid.,  p.  15  f. 


99 

some  of  his  contemporaries  to  scorn  or  to  tears,  affected 
Chaucer  in  a  very  different  way.  As  a  literary  man,  he  looks 
upon  the  world  from  a  point  of  view  far  removed  from  that 
of  these  ardent  souls  who  felt  inspired  to  reform  the  universe. 
He  selects  his  material  with  care,  and  uses  it  for  purely  liter- 
ary purposes.  He  perceives  the  evils  that  move  others  to 
protest,  but,  feel  these  inconsistencies  keenly  as  he  may,  in 
the  main  he  is  moved  not  to  tears  and  indignation,  but  to  jest 
and  laughter;  for,  if  not  a  moral  reformer,  he  possesses  an 
inestimable  gift  almost  unknown  to  his  contemporaries — a 
bountiful  sense  of  humor.  His  object,  then,  is  to  mirror  the 
life  of  his  time,  to  show  men  and  women  as  they  are,  not  to 
make  them  better.  Society  has  its  faults,  but  the  world  is  a 
fairly  good  world  for  all  reasonable  people ;  it  is  comfortable ; 
it  is  certainly  amusing. 

In  the  incidental  satire  of  the  General  Prologue,  the  inter- 
ludes, and  here  and  there  through  the  Tales,  Chaucer  largely 
utilizes  subject-matter  rendered  quite  conventional  by  long 
use.  The  life  of  the  clergy,  the  impositions  of  pardoners,  the 
avarice  and  licentiousness  of  friars,  the  rascality  of  summon- 
ers — in  all  this  there  is  nothing  new.  But  the  method  is  new 
— a  method  and  a  lightness  of  touch  that  certainly  were  not 
an  English  inheritance,  but  that  might  possibly  be  learned 
abroad  in  France  and  Italy ;  a  humor  and  wit  quite  unsurpass- 
able, which  could  not  be  learned  anywhere  and  were  just  as 
certainly  no  more  an  English  inheritance  than  the  method,  but 
were  innate  in  Chaucer  himself.  This  satirist  brings  no  gen-1 
eral  abstract  charges  against  the  religious  orders,34  but  uses 
the  descriptive  and  dramatic  method  of  Horace,  whereby  the 
type,  and  not  merely  the  type,  but  the  individual  monk,  friar, 
pardoner,  summoner,  Wife  of  Bath,  and  others  of  the  wonder- 
ful motley  crew,  actually  live  before  the  reader.  With  the 
highest  art  of  the  satirist,  Chaucer  either  makes  his  characters 
reveal  themselves,  or,  where  he  merely  describes  them,  de- 
scribes them  with  humor  and  wit  inimitable. 

In  his  satire,  Chaucer  employs  two  different  methods:   one, 

34  Such  as  had  been  the  stock  in  trade  of  preceding  satire. 


100 

the  direct,35  the  descriptive,  illustrated  chiefly  by  the  General 
Prologue,  occasionally  by  the  minor  prologues ;  the  other,  the 
indirect  or  dramatic,36  illustrated  by  the  Tales.  In  the  minor 
prologues  and  interludes,  while  both  methods  are  combined, 
the  indirect  predominates.  Hence,  if  we  here  distinguish 
between  the  satire  of  the  General  Prologue  and  that  of  the 
minor  prologues  and  the  Tales,  it  is  not  because  the  two  differ 
materially  in  subject-matter,  but  because  the  satirical  method 
of  the  former  is  merely  descriptive,  while  that  of  the  latter  is 
mainly  dramatic. 

Almost  three  hundred  and  fifty  of  the  eight  hundred  and 
fifty-eight  lines  of  the  General  Prologue  are  more  or  less 
satirical.  The  pictures  of  the  ecclesiastical  types — the  Monk, 
the  Friar,  the  Pardoner,  and  the  Summoner;  and  of  the  lay 
types, — the  Reve,  the  Manciple,  the  Doctor,  the  Miller,  and 
the  Wife  of  Bath,  are  portrayed  by  the  descriptive  method; 
yet  the  satire  is  so  insidious,  so  permeated  with  laughter,  that 
the  result  has  the  effect  of  a  dramatic  rather  than  of  a  personal 
expression.  Perhaps  no  man  of  the  time  was  more  alive  to 
ecclesiastical  abuses,  more  sensible  of  the  degradation  of  the 
clergy,  than  was  Chaucer.  But  his  method  of  criticism  was 
a  world  removed  from  that  of  a  Langland  or  of  a  Gower. 
Centuries  before,  Nigellus  Wireker,  as  may  be  remembered, 
had  laid  it  down  as  his  theory  of  satire  that  "  more  diseases 
may  be  cured  by  unguents  than  by  caustic."  3T  And  Chaucer 
being  perhaps  a  satirist  of  like  spirit  to  that  of  the  humorous 
precentor  of  Canterbury,  implicitly  voices  the  same  theory. 

Chaucer's  monk,  an  admirable  picture,  we  may  take  as  the 
contemporary  monastic  type.  He  follows  the  hounds,  for 

"  What  sholde  he  studie,  and  make  him-selven  wood, 
Upon  a  book  in  cloistre  alwey  to  poure  ?  " 

He  enjoyed  the  good  things  in  life,  as  was  evidenced  by  the 
fact  that 

"  He  was  a  lord  ful  fat  and  in  good  point  "- 
"  He  was  nat  pale  as  a  for-pyned  goost." 

36  See  supra,  p.  14  f. 
36  Ibid.,  p.   1 8  f. 
87  Ibid.,  p.  43. 


101 

The  friar,  too,  as  here  portrayed,  justifies  the  bitter  re- 
proaches heaped  upon  him  by  other  satirists  of  the  period; 
the  character  is  just  the  same.  But  how  different  the  method 
of  attack!  When  the  severe  arraignments  of  Chaucer's  con- 
temporaries shall  have  been  forgotten,  Chaucer's  own  most 
exquisite  irony,  his  apparent  sympathy  with  the  friar's  point 
of  view,  will  still  hold  the  type  up  to  an  undying  contempt. 
It  had  originally  been  the  duty  of  the  various  orders  of  friars 
to  minister  to  the  needy  and  nurse  the  sick ;  but,  with  growing 
wealth  and  prestige,  the  old  ideal  had  given  place  to  an  ideal 
of  worldly  ease  and  position: 

"  For  un-to  swich  a  worthy  man  as  he 
Acorded  nat,  as  by  his  facultee, 
To  have  with  seke  lazars  aqueyntaunce. 
It  is  nat  honest,  it  may  not  avaunce 
For  to  delen  with  no  swich  poraille." 

The  Pardoner  is  he  of  the  olden  time,  but  described  with  a 
richness  of  humor  that  makes  him  a  new  personage.  Here 
the  satire  is  more  obvious : 

"  He  hadde  a  croys  of  latoun,  ful  of  stones, 
And  in  a  glas  he  hadde  pigges  bones." — 

"  And  thus,  with  feyned  flaterye  and  lapes, 
He  made  the  person  and  the  peple  his  apes." 

This  is  one  of  the  four  great  pictures  of  the  Pardoner  in 
English  satire.  Over  a  century  later,  Cock  Lorell38  is  to  por- 
tray the  type  with  unctuous  humor,  Heywood  is  to  present  the 
pardoner  in  dramatic  form  in  his  two  interludes  The  Four 
P's  and  The  Pardoner  and  the  Friar,39  and  Lyndsay  is  to  equal 
this  portrait  in  his  wonderful  dramatic  picture  of  The  Satire 
of  the  Three  Estates.40 

Perhaps  quite  equal  to  Chaucer's  Pardoner  is  his  Summoner, 
who  is  represented  by  the  same  method  and  with  the  same  half 

88  See  infra,  p.  1 78  f . 

38  Ibid.,  p.  213. 

40  Ibid.,  p.  207;  cf.  also  the  Pardoner  in  Bale's  Kyngjohan,  p.  216,  infra. 


102 

sympathetic,  half  contemptuous  humor.  He  is  sensual,  ignor- 
ant, repulsively  ugly ;  but,  says  Chaucer, 

"  He  was  a  gentil  harlot  and  a  kinde." 

That  is  sufficient ;  the  Summoner  has  his  good  points :  though 
Chaucer  laughs,  he  does  not  utterly  despise.  It  is  no  part  of 
his  satirical  method  to  make  his  types — or  rather  characters — 
absolutely  loathsome.  The  Summoner  grows  learned  in  his 
cups: 

"  And  whan  that  he  wel  dronken  hadde  the  wyn, 
Than  wolde  he  speke  no  word  but  Latyn. 
A  fewe  termes  hadde  he,  two  or  three, 
That  he  had  lerned  out  of  som  decree  " — 

In  Chaucer's  pictures  of  his  lay  characters,  we  find  some- 
thing new  in  material  as  well  as  in  method.  Langland  had 
inveighed  here  and  there  against  millers  and  reves,  but  nowhere 
in  previous  or  contemporary  English  satire  do  we  discover 
anything  comparable  to  these  elaborate  pieces  of  characteriza- 
tion in  the  Prologue.  The  reve,  or  steward,  is  a  sly  knave,  a 
thrifty  thief,  who,  having  gained  his  master's  confidence,  fleeces 
him  ad  libitum: 

"  His  lord  wel  coude  he  plesen  subtilly, 
To  yeve  and  lene  him  of  his  owne  good  " — 

The  Manciple  is  a  knave  of  the  same  stripe.  By  his  thrifty 
cunning  he  has  fleeced  "  an  heep  of  learned  men."  Even  while 
laying  bare  the  rascality  of  his  rogues,  Chaucer  has  to  give  a 
sly  chuckle  over  their  shrewdness  and  their  deception  of  their 
over-trustful  superiors.  The  Miller,  too,  is  a  calculating 
knave  with  a  keen  eye  for  business : 

"  Wel  coude  he  stelen  corn,  and  tollen  thryes ; 
And  yet  he  hadde  a  thombe  of  gold,  pardee." 

The  doctor  is  a  new  character  in  English  satire.  While  pay- 
ing a  certain  tribute  to  his  learning  and  gravity,  the  poet  has  to 
laugh  at  his  avarice : 


103 

"  He  kepte  that  he  wan  in  pestilence. 
For  gold  in  phisik  is  a  cordial, 
Therefore  he  lovede  gold  in  special," 

and  remarks  that  "  His  studie  was  but  little  on  the  bibel " ; 
which  perhaps  means  that  the  doctor's  whole  thought  was  of 
his  own  material  comfort  and  worldly  gain.  In  a  later  age 
LaFontaine  satirized  the  physician  of  his  time  under  the  guise 
of  the  wolf — deceitful  and  servile,  a  charlatan  and  a  knave. 
Chaucer's  physician  is  a  personage  of  much  greater  dignity, 
and  is  far  from  being  contemptible. 

But  the  "Wife  of  Bath"!  What  picture  in  all  medieval 
satire  can  stand  beside  this  incomparable  portraiture  of  a 
thrifty,  industrious,  calculating,  vulgar,  sensual  woman  of  the 
lower  middle  class  of  Chaucer's  England?  This  characteriza- 
tion is  no  mere  conventional  satire  on  woman,*1  but  only  on  a 
certain  type  of  woman.  After  detailing  the  industry  and  skill 
and  churchly  devotion  of  his  Wife  of  Bath,  the  satirist  iron- 
ically adds : 

"  She  was  a  worthy  womman  al  hir  lyve, 
Housbondes  at  chirch-dore  she  hadde  fyve, 
Withouten  other  companye  in  youthe; 
But  thereof  nedeth  nat  to  speke  as  nouthe." 

So  much  for  the  satirical  characterization  in  the  Prologue. 
Here  and  there  in  the  portraits  of  the  Prioress  and  others  are 
scattered  satirical  lines,  but  it  does  not  appear  that  Chaucer  was 
holding  these  characters  up  to  ridicule.  Apart  from  the  Gen- 
eral Prologue,  we  must  search  chiefly  in  the  interludes,  the 
Tales,  and  finally  in  The  House  of  Fame  for  the  poet's  further 
contribution  of  satire. 

The  Pardoner  appears  again  as  a  satirical  type  in  the  pro- 
logue and  the  conclusion  of  his  own  Tale.  The  prologue  con- 
sists of  sixty-seven,  and  the  epilogue  of  about  sixty,  pentameter 
couplets.  Together  they  form  a  Satire  against  cupidity — the 
pardoner's  confession  of  his  own  frauds,  his  avarice,  his  hypo- 
crisy. While  the  satire  is  in  the  dramatic  method,  the  method 

41  Such  as  was  to  follow  in  such  copiousness  a  century  later ;  see  "  The 
Satire  on  Woman,"  infra,  p.  175  f. 


104 

is  here  hardly  natural :  the  Pardoner,  one  cannot  help  feeling, 
would  scarcely  so  confess  himself  to  a  motley  company  some  ^ 
of  whose  members  he  must  have  looked  upon  as  fair  game  for 
his  tricks.     The  satirist  here  speaks  really  in  propria  persona: 

"  '  Lordlings/  quod  he,  '  in  chirches  whan  I  preche, 
I  peyne  me  to  han  an  hauteyn  speche, 
And  ring  it  out  as  round  as  gooth  a  belle, 
For  I  can  al  by  rote  that  I  telle. 
My  theme  is  alwey  oon,  and  ever  was — 
"  Radix  malorum  est  cupiditas." 

'"And  after  that  than  telle  I  forth  my  tales, 
Bulles  of  popes  and  of  cardinales, 
Of  patriarkes,  and  bishoppes  I  shewe; 
And  in  Latyn  I  speke  a  wordes  fewe, 
To  saffron  with  my  predicacioun, 
And  for  to  stire  men  to  devocioun. 
Than  shewe  I  forth  my  longe  cristal  stones, 
Y-crammed  ful  of  cloutes  and  of  bones ; 
Reliks  been  they,  as  wenen  they  echoon.' " 

The  elaborate  prologue  to  the  Wife  of  Bath's  Tale,  eight 
hundred  and  twenty-eight  lines,  is  a  Satire  on  a  certain  femi- 
nine type  whose  original  suggestion  lay  in  the  old  duenna  who 
watches  over  Bel  Acueil  in  the  Roman  de  la  Rose.42  It  is 
spoken  by  the  wife  herself,  the  same  fleshly  creature  of  the 
General  Prologue,  amorous,  loud  and  crude,  domineering,  yet 
capable,  domestic  withal,  and  apparently  quite  above  marital  in- 
fidelity and  treachery.  By  the  highest  satirical  art,  she  is  made, 
while  detailing  her  conjugal  experiences  and  giving  her  views 
— rather  startling  in  their  freedom — on  love  and  matrimony,  to 
exemplify  in  her  own  person,  and  unconsciously  to  satirize, 
feminine  lechery,  selfishness,  and  tyranny.  No  other  such  por- 
trait exists  in  English  satire ;  and  other  mere  "  satires  against 
women  "  compared  with  this  immortal  picture  become  colorless 
and  feeble. 

And  yet,  after  studying  the  wife's  character  as  given  in  the 

43  See  Lounsbury,  Studies  in  Chaucer,  Vol.  2,  p.  526  ;  Mead,  The  Prologue 
of  the  Wife  of  Bath's  Tale,  Pub.  Mod.  Lang.  Ass.  Am.,  Vol.  16,  new  sen, 
Vol.  9. 


105 

General  Prologue,  the  prologue  to  her  own  tale,  and,  by  impli- 
cation, at  least,  in  the  Tale  itself,  one  begins  to  wonder  if,  after 
all,  Chaucer's  picture  is  purely  satirical.  A  suggestion  of 
pathos,  an  undercurrent  of  sympathy  on  the  part  of  the  poet, 
in  this  marvelous  piece  of  characterization,  render  the  Wife  a 
more  complete  personality  than  any  merely  satirical  picture 
could  ever  be.  It  may  be,  too,  that  the  Wife's  prologue  is,  as 
has  been  suggested,  a  Satire  against  celibacy;  for  the  poet 
puts  into  her  mouth  arguments  irrefutable  though  often  frankly 
animal.  There  is  good  sense  in  her  talk.  Throughout  the 
whole  picture,  in  short,  Chaucer  shows  his  sympathy  with  the 
Wife's  point  of  view :  he  seems  to  see  every  side  of  her  char- 
acter, the  ignoble  as  well  as  the  admirable,  the  silly  as  well  as 
the  sensible.43 

This  satire,  if  satire  it  be,  on  a  particular  type  of  woman 
takes  a  more  general  range  in  the  envoy  to  the  Clerk's  Tale. 
The  Clerk  has  been  discoursing  on  the  patience  of  Griselda, 
and  in  his  playful  yet  really  satirical  envoy,  advises  the  wives 
of  his  time  to  make  no  attempt  to  emulate  the  admirable  yet 
fatiguing  patience  of  his  heroine. 

Chaucer,  probably  unconsciously,  continues  the  Goliardic 
tradition  when  he  attacks  celibacy.  An  eminent  Chaucerian 
critic  sees  in  the  prologue  to  the  Wife  of  Bath's  Tale  simply 
a  satire  on  celibacy.44  However  this  may  be,  satire  on  celi- 
bacy frank  and  undisguised  is  certainly  to  be  found  in  the  in- 
terlude before  the  Monk's  Tale.  In  "  The  Meerye  wordes  of 
the  Hoost  to  the  Monk,"  11.  36-76,  the  host,  with  a  mingling  of 
humor,  vulgarity,  and  common  sense,  expresses  his  opinion  of 
the  celibate  state,  and  asserts  that  the  monk  is  too  fine  a  speci- 
men of  manhood  to  be  celibate.  The  best-formed  men,  those 
very  ones  who  should  be  fathers,  the  Church  claims  as  her  own. 

"  Not  only  thou,  but  every  mighty  man, 
Thogh  he  were  shorn  ful  hye  upon  his  pan, 
Sholde  have  a  wyf  — ." 

48  See  the  admirable   analysis   of  the   Wife's   character  given  in  Mr.   R. 
K.  Root's  The  Poetry  of  Chaucer,  p.  231  f. 
44  See  Lounsbury,  2,  522. 


106 

While  treating  the  interludes  and  the  minor  prologues,  it  may 
be  well  to  enter  a  caveat  against  the  supposedly  satirical  char- 
acter of  the  interlude  following  the  Monk's  Tale  and  of  the 
Tale  itself,  a  lengthy  and  often  tedious,  but  occasionally  beauti- 
ful and  tender,  narrative  de  Casibus  Virorum  Illustrium.  The 
genre,  of  course,  derives  from  Boccaccio.  In  the  tale  itself, 
wearisome  as  it  often  becomes,  the  serious  and  often  elevated 
tone  would  tell  heavily  against  Professor  Lounsbury's  assump- 
tion that  the  nature  of  the  tale  is  parodic.45  Furthermore,  any 
genre  has  to  reach  its  climax  and  enter  its  decline  before  the 
parody  appears.  Now  the  de  Casibus  genre  was  still  very 
young, — Boccaccio's  De  Casibus  was  written  between  1363  and 
1373 — and  Chaucer's  Tale  is  its  first  exemplar  in  England,  while 
its  long-continued  and  widespread  popularity  was  not  reached 
until  the  fifteenth  century.46  For  these  two  reasons,  stylistic 
and  chronological,  the  Tale  must  be  taken  seriously,  as  it  was 
by  Chaucer's  successors ;  and  we  are  compelled,  in  order  to  sus- 
tain the  parodic  theory,  to  fall  back  upon  the  Interlude. 

The  Interlude,  indeed,  on  the  face  of  it — at  least  the  speech 
of  the  Host — certainly  seems  satirical.  The  Monk  is  abruptly 
"  stinted  of  his  tale  "  by  the  protests  of  the  Knight  and  the 
Host.  The  Knight  wants  no  sad  stories,  but  only  those  of 
"joie  and  great  solas."  The  host  approves  the  protest  of  the 
Knight.  This  "  tragedy  "  cannot  be  amended  by  crying : 

"  Sir  Monk,  na-more  of  this,  so  god  yow  blesse ! 
Your  tale  anoyeth  al  this  companye; 
Swich  talking  is  nat  worth  a  boterflye  — ." 

Had  it  not  been  for  the  clinking  of  the  monk's  bugle-bells,  the 
host  would  long  since  have  slumbered  through  the  "  Tragedy  " ! 
It  looks  difficult  to  dispose  of  this  interlude.  If  supported 
by  the  Tale  itself,  we  should  instantly  agree  on  its  satirical 
intent.  Yet  it  is  possible  that  the  poet  adopted  this  informal 
close  to  what  threatened  to  be  a  tedious  narrative ;  the  Knight 

45  See  Lounsbury,  3,  332-4. 

46  For  valuable  suggestions  concerning  the  intent  of  the  Monk's  Tale,  I 
am  indebted  to  Professor  K.  C.  M.  Sills,  of  Bowdoin  College,  who  agrees 
with  the  view  here  given. 


107 

and  the  Host  not  representing  two  orders  of  society,47  but 
merely  the  two  individuals  best  fitted  to  protest  against  so  digni- 
fied a  personage  as  the  monk.  Chaucer  himself  was  not 
opposed  to  "  tragedy,"  as  certain  of  his  own  works  testify. 
It  may  be,  as  has  been  suggested,  that  Chaucer  wrote  these 
"  tragedies  "  constituting  the  Monk's  Tale  long  before  he  de- 
signed The  Canterbury  Tales,  and  now  utilizes  this  old  material 
in  his  new  scheme, — voicing,  in  the  comments  of  the  Knight 
and  of  the  Host,  his  own  mature  opinion  of  the  literary  badness 
of  his  early  work.48  According  to  this,  the  Monk's  Tale  itself 
is  in  no  sense  a  burlesque,  but  entirely  serious,  and  represents 
the  serious  side  of  the  poet's  nature.  Chaucer's  dramatic  in- 
stinct asserts  itself  in  the  prologue.  The  poet  here  appears  in 
two  characters :  his  serious  side  is  represented  by  the  Knight, 
while  his  humorous  side  seeks  outlet  in  the  comments  of  the 
Host,  who  finds  the  Monk's  tale  both  ridiculous  and  dull.49 

When  we  look  for  a  manifestation  of  the  satirical  spirit  in  the 
Tales  themselves,  we  find  that,  while  Chaucer  may  have  been 
independent  of  satirical  traditions  in  England,  he  was  deeply 
indebted  to  the  Continental  fabliau.  He  did  not  create  his 
plots,  and,  moreover,  gained  from  his  foreign  sources  much  of 
his  indirect  satirical  method.  The  satire  of  the  General  Pro- 
logue, the  interludes,  and  minor  prologues,  is  entirely  Chaucer's 
own;  but  the  subject-matter  as  well  as  much  of  the  method 
and  spirit  of  his  Tales  he  owes  to  others,  despite  the  local 
coloring  and  the  Chaucerian  touch. 

It  is  customary  to  speak  of  the  fabliau  as  a  satirical  genre, 
with  the  easy  incorrectness  with  which  the  words  "  satire  " 
and  "  satirical "  are  commonly  applied.  The  fabliau,  or 
"  conte  a  rire,"  a  narrative  poem  picturing,  in  the  main,  con- 
temporary life,  frequently  with  humor  and  power,  is  a  French 
form  that  perhaps  takes  its  remarkable  rise  with  the  fabliau 
Richer t  about  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century.*'  For  about 
a  century  and  a  half  (1156-1300)  it  expanded  and  flourished, 

47  But  cf.  Lounsbury,  3,  332-4. 

48  Root,  p.  206. 

"For  this  suggestion  I  am  indebted  to  Miss  M.   P.  Conant,  author  of 
The  Oriental  Tale  in  England. 


108 

its  subject-matter  often  being  common  property.50  Its  pic- 
tures of  bourgeois  life,  graphic,  humorous,  often  coarse,  even 
extremely  licentious,  set  in  the  foreground  three  typical  fig- 
ures— the  husband,  the  wife,  and  the  clerk.  These  are  the 
chief  favorites,  but  the  picture  gallery  includes  every  contem- 
porary type.51  While  the  fabliau  often  entertains  a  profound 
contempt  for  women,  and  sometimes,  though  but  incidentally, 
attacks  the  ecclesiastical  orders — chiefly  the  monks  and  the 
friars — it  is  yet,  as  a  genre,  not  truly  satirical.  Its  object  is 
not  to  reform,  nor  even,  primarily,  to  ridicule,  but  largely  to 
amuse — perhaps,  though  incidentally,  to  instruct.52  Neither  the 
writer  nor  the  reader  feels  himself  above  the  characters  and 
manners  portrayed.  A  clerk  is  chosen  as  the  hero  of  an  epi- 
sode of  marital  infidelity  less  because  the  typical  clerk  is  worse 
than  the  typical  soldier  or  merchant  than  because  the  contrast 
between  the  clerk's  preaching  and  his  practice  is  the  most 
glaring,  therefore  the  most  humorous.  The  whole  society 
concerned  in  the  writing,  the  reading,  and  the  subject-matter 
of  the  fabliau  is  morally  homogeneous.  Vice,  if  shrewd 
enough,  often  triumphs ;  the  villain  may  lose,  but  through  his 
stupidity,  not  through  his  moral  obliquity.  Such  would  seem 
to  be  the  typical  fabliau — not  a  satire,  but  a  humorous  por- 
trayal of  manners.  How  easily  and  how  effectively  it  could 
become  really  satirical,  Chaucer  himself  shows  us  in  more  than 
one  of  his  Canterbury  Tales. 

Of  the  three  English  fabliaux  in  England  before  Chaucer, 
that  of  Dame  Sirith  or  Siriz,53  in  the  time  of  Henry  III,  tells 
a  story  that  goes  far  back  to  Hindoo  sources,  with  the  real 
fabliau  spirit  and  indecency.  At  least  one  critic  sees  in  it 
satire  on  the  clergy  and  on  women,  from  the  fact  that  the  Eng- 
lish writer  has  substituted  a  clerk  instead  of  a  young  layman 
as  the  lover.54  But  probably  we  have  in  Dame  Siriz  merely 

50  See  G.  Paris,  La  Literature  jranqaise  au  May  en  Age,  p.  118  f. 

81  The  material,  however,  is  not  always  contemporary ;  it  is  sometimes 
drawn  from  antiquity ;  nor  is  it  always  humorous,  but  sometimes  moral  and 
religious.  See  Lenient,  Ch.  V. 

62  See  Bedier,  Les  Fabliaux,  passim. 

63Maetzner,  I,  103  f. 

M  Haessner,  pp.  67-8. 


109 

the  ordinary  spirit  of  the  fabliau,  lacking  in  real   satirical 
characteristics. 

A  second  so-called  fabliau,  The  Fox  and  the  Wolf,55  is 
merely  a  humorous  beast-fable,  without  a  superficial  trace  of 
that  "  symbolic  satire  on  the  clergy  "  which  has  been  claimed 
for  it ;  while  the  third,  The  Land  of  Cockaygne,  is  undoubtedly 
satirical,  whether  it  be  taken  as  a  parody  of  the  Vision  genre 
or  merely  as  a  terrible  gibe  at  the  sensuality  of  the  clergy. 
The  last  named,  however,  either  derived  from,  or  thoroughly 
analogous  to,  a  French  original,  has  been  elsewhere  treated.56 

Either  fabliaux,  or  in  the  fabliau  spirit,  are  Chaucer's  Tales 
of  the  Miller,  the  Reeve,  the  Shipman,  and  the  Merchant. 
None  of  these  is  truly  satirical,  and  the  last  named,  the  Mer- 
chant's Tale,  on  the  famous  "  January  and  May  "  theme,  per- 
haps derived  from  Boccaccio,  may  be  taken  as  representative 
of  the  unsatirical  fabliau.  This  is  a  story  of  marital  infidel- 
ity, in  which  the  young  lover,  with  the  consent  and  assistance 
of  the  young  wife,  outwits  and  befools  the  old  and  credulous 
husband.  The  merchant,  in  his  prologue,  asserts  that  his  own 
wife  is  a  shrew  fit  to  overmatch  the  devil,  and  his  Tale,  of 
course,  illustrates  the  sly  infidelity  of  that  feminine  type.  Per- 
haps it  might  be  said  that  the  tale  ridicules  the  absurd  credulity 
of  the  typical  old  husband.  But  the  motive — simply  to  amuse 
— is  too  plainly  evident.  Narrator,  actors,  and  audience,  move 
on  the  same  level.  The  audience  may  place  its  sympathies 
anywhere  it  pleases — with  the  old  husband  or  with  the  un- 
faithful wife. 

The  Nonne  Preestes  Tale  is  a  delightfully  humorous  beast- 
fable  founded  on  an  incident  taken  from  the  Roman  de 
Renart57  That  the  tale  is  allegorical — that  the  beasts  are  to 
stand  for  human  beings — Chaucer  gravely  assures  us  in  the 
"  moral."  Chanticleer  falls  through  vanity ;  Dan  Russel  the 
Fox,  through  pride  and  imprudence.  The  moral  is  as  grave 
as  that  of  a  fable  by  ^Esop.  From  this  point  of  view,  the 
Tale  is  simply  didactic;  certainly  it  could,  as  a  whole,  form 

55 Early  Popular  Poetry,  ed.  Hazlitt,  Vol.  i,  p.  58  f.     See  supra,  p.  27. 

M  See  supra,  p.  58. 

OT  See  Miss  K.  O.  Petersen,  On  the  Sources  of  the  Nonne  Preestes  Tale. 


110 

but  a  very  general  and  rather  ineffective  satire  on  human 
folly.  Furthermore,  the  moral — which  mars  the  tale — reads 
like  an  afterthought — a  concession  by  the  poet  to  the  taste  for 
didacticism  characteristic  of  his  period.  But  the  humor  and 
the  elaborate  realism  that  run  through  The  Nonne  Preestes 
Tale,  while  they  do  not  transform  it  into  a  Satire,  yet  render 
it  something  quite  unique  in  its  charm.  The  eternal  mascu- 
line and  the  eternal  feminine  are  embodied  in  the  relations 
between  Chanticleer  and  Pertelote.  Her  well-meant  medical 
advice,  his  rejection  of  it — how  characteristic  of  each  sex! 
Yet  this  picture  is  humorous,  not  satirical.  Again,  while 
Chanticleer's  deliberate  mistranslation  of  the  Latin  proverb 
may  be  intended  as  a  satirical  reference  to  marital  deception, 
the  passage  is  too  brief  to  color  the  whole  poem.  It  is  true 
that  the  poet  himself  speaks  some  eleven  ironical  lines  against 
woman — lines  undoubtedly  satirical  and  stinging  as  a  lash. 
But  these,  too,  are  incidental — a  digression.  Furthermore,  it 
is  remarkable  how  many  lines  in  the  Tale,  so  far  from  being 
satirical,  are  not  even  humorous.  The  lengthy  dream-tales, 
while  of  course  incongruous  in  the  mouth  of  a  cock,  are  in 
themselves  quite  serious. 

Surely,  it  is  only  as  a  Satire  on  human  folly  that  The  Nonne 
Preestes  Tale  as  a  whole  can  be  termed  satirical.  Granting 
that  its  humor  lifts  the  Tale  from  sheer  didacticism  into  satire, 
how  little  of  the  story  is  really  given  to  the  incident  of  the 
Cock  and  the  Fox!  The  general  setting,  the  conversations 
between  Chanticleer  and  Pertelote,  the  mock-heroics  after  the 
capture  of  the  Cock,  predominate  not  only  in  bulk  but  in  in- 
terest  over  all  other  elements.  But,  after  all,  the  chief  argu- 
ment against  the  formally  satirical  nature  of  The  Nonne 
Preestes  Tale  lies  in  nothing  of  the  foregoing,  but  simply  in 
this:  one  feels,  when  he  reads  the  Tale,  that  Chaucer  is 
laughing,  that  a  sympathetic  humor  permeates  the  piece,  that 
both  didacticism  and  satire  are  here  subordinated  to  a  most 
delicate  and  delightful  fun! 

From  such  Tales  as  these,  humorous,  witty,  not  satirical, 
we  turn  to  those  three — the  Tales  of  the  Friar,  of  the  Sum- 


Ill 

moner,  and  of  the  Canon's  Yeoman — in  which  the  satirist  is 
clearly  at  work.  With  their  sources  we  are  not  here  con- 
cerned, but  we  may  find  in  them,  as  Chaucer  made  them  over 
for  us,  excellent  examples  of  that  satirical  method  which  we 
have  termed  dramatic  or  indirect,  as  distinct  from  the  descrip- 
tive and  direct  method  of  the  General  Prologue. 

The  Freres  Tale,  in  three  hundred  and  sixty-six  lines  in 
pentameter  couplets,  is  a  narrative  Satire  on  summoners.  The 
story  tells  of  a  lecherous,  avaricious  summoner,  and  how  he 
falls  by  his  own  tricks  into  the  hands  of  the  devil,  who  carries 
him  off  to  hell,  where,  intimates  the  Friar,  all  summoners 
ought  to  be.  While  humor  is  abundant,  the  satire,  though 
altogether  implied,  is  scathing.  The  friar,  at  the  beginning 
of  the  story,  paints  a  picture  of  his  summoner  so  unflattering 
and  rude  that  one  cannot  wonder  at  the  strenuous  protests 
made  by  Chaucer's  Summoner,  who  is  listening  to  the  story: 

"  And  right  as  ludas  hadde  purses  smale, 
And  was  a  theef,  right  swich  a  theef  was  he; 
His  maister  had  but  half  his  duetee. 
He  was,  if  I  shal  yeven  him  his  laude, 
A  theef,  and  eek  a  Somnour,  and  a  baude." 

However,  the  Summoner,  in  his  own  tale,  more  than  repays 
his  obligations  to  the  Friar.  This  story,  five  hundred  and 
eighty-six  lines  in  length,  is  a  thoroughly  humorous,  and 
rather  indecorous,  exposure  of  the  avarice,  deceit,  sensuality, 
and  gluttony  of  the  typical  friar.  It  is  a  rare  satiric  art  that 
sets  these  two  abominable  types  of  the  period  to  exposing  each 
other's  rascality. 

According  to  the  Summoner,  his  friar,  under  pretense  of 
begging  for  his  friary,  lines  his  own  pockets  and  sack : 

"  In  every  hous  he  gan  to  poure  and  prye, 
And  beggeth  mele,   and   chese,   or  elles   corn." 

On  his  tablets  he  writes  the  names  of  those  who  give,  that,  as 
he  assures  the  givers,  he  may  pray  for  their  salvation — 

"  And  whan  that  he  was  out  at  dore  anon, 
He  planed  awey  the  names  everichon." 


112 

From  Thomas,  a  dying  man  who  has  given  liberally  in  the 
past,  the  friar  begs  further  alms.  But  Thomas  has  learned 
his  lesson :  though  he  has  given  freely,  he  has  gotten  no  good : 

: '  As  help  me  Crist,  as  I,  in  fewe  yeres, 
Han  spended,  up-on  dyvers  maner  freres, 
Ful  many  a  pound;  yet   fare   I   never  the  bet. 
Certeyn,  my  gold  have  I  almost  biset. 
Farwel,  my  gold !  for  it  is  al  ago ! ' ; 

The  friar,  meanwhile,  has,  through  the  good-will  of 
Thomas'  wife,  enjoyed  a  good  dinner  at  the  rich  man's  ex- 
pense. Finally,  Thomas,  indignant  at  the  pertinacity  and 
hypocrisy  of  the  Friar,  plays  him  a  rough  trick,  and  sends 
him  away  wrathful  and  disappointed.  The  story  ends  with 
a  contemptuous  burlesque  in  which  the  friar  is  altogether  dis- 
comfited. Owing  to  the  indecorous  nature  of  the  theme,  quo- 
tation from  the  story  is  largely  forbidden.  Yet  the  burlesque 
moves  along  rapidly  and  lightly,  replete  with  humor  and  vigor. 
The  satire  is  of  course  dramatic  and  indirect,  and  is  at  least 
as  effective  as  that  of  The  Freres  Tale. 

Yet  in  all  this,  however  new  and  fascinating  in  method,  we 
find  nothing  distinctly  new  in  subject-matter.  But  when  we 
consider  the  Tale  told  by  the  Canon's  Yeoman,  we  enter  a 
new  field.  For  this  tale  is  the  first  English  Satire  against 
alchemy.  It  is  to  be  followed  in  time  by  divers  attacks,  finally 
culminating  in  Ben  Jonson's  immortal  Alchemist  over  two 
centuries  later. 

Up  to  Chaucer's  time  English  satire  had  not  been  startlingly 
original  in  its  subject-matter.  It  preferred  rather  to  follow  the 
old  lines  of  moral  diatribe,  to  attack  political  follies,  or  to  ridi- 
cule fashions.  In  other  words,  its  material  was  largely  external 
and  superficial.  One  might  ask  why  no  attacks  were  made 
against  the  pseudo-sciences,  astrology,  alchemy? — against  the 
medical  science  of  the  age  ? — against  its  philosophy  ? — its  social 
economy?  The  answer  is  not  far  to  seek.  False  sciences  as 
they  were,  astrology  and  alchemy  were  grounded  in  the  belief 
and  upheld  by  the  good- will  of  all  classes  of  the  people.  The 
same  was  true  of  the  medical  science,  the  scholastic  philosophy, 


113 

the  medieval  social  economy.  Only  the  Renaissance  was  to 
break  the  bonds,  to  let  in  the  light.  Even  as  it  was,  the  be- 
lief in  alchemy  persisted  for  centuries  after  Chaucer,  and  astrol- 
ogy still  finds  its  devotees  at  the  present  day.  The  scholastic 
philosophy  alone  was  satirized — and  that  briefly,  though 
effectively,  in  a  Goliardic  poem  in  the  reign  of  Edward  I.58  So 
The  Canons  Yeoman's  Tale  is  a  pioneer  and  as  such  deserves 
full  credit. 

The  Canon's  Yeoman's  Tale,  seven  hundred  and  sixty-one 
lines,  is  divided  into  two  parts:  the  first,  a  direct  attack  on 
alchemy;  the  second,  a  humorous  illustrative  story.  In  Part 
I.  the  yeoman  relates  his  experiences  as  the  servant  of  a  canon 
who  practiced  the  art  of  the  alchemist,  giving  his  life,  time, 
means,  to  the  search  for  an  impossibility.  The  yeoman  is  a 
grave  personage ;  he  comments  on  the  art  feelingly  as  one 
acquainted  with  it  to  his  own  cost,  but  he  is  not  mirthful : 

"  This  cursed  craft  who-so  wol  exercyse, 
He  shall  no  good  han  that  him  may  suffyse; 
For  al  the  good  he  spendeth  ther-aboute, 
He  lese  shal,  ther-of  have  I  no  doute 
Who-so  that  listeth  outen  his   folye, 
Lat  him  come  forth,  and  lerne  multiplye; 
And  every  man  that  oght  hath  in  his  cofre, 
Lat  him  appere,  and  wexe  a  philosofre." 

The  story,  however,  is  humorous  enough.  A  canon- 
alchemist,  shrewd  and  tricky,  finds  a  credulous  priest  whom  he 
resolves  to  dupe.  From  this  prtest  he  borrows  one  mark  a  day 
for  three  days,  repays  promptly,  and  so  gains  the  priest's  confi- 
dence. Then,  by  an  amusing  and  clever  trick,  he  shows  the 
priest,  to  the  latter's  satisfaction,  how  to  make  silver.  For 
the  recipe  the  Canon  receives  forty  pounds — and  is  never  seen 
again.  In  this  there  is  great  humor  of  situation,  and  the 
satire,  not  merely  by  its  originality  but  by  its  vigor,  must  rank 
among  the  best  in  the  Canterbury  Tales. 

Chaucer's  one  formal  piece  of  literary  satire  is  Sir  Thopas. 
There  can  be  little  doubt  that  this  is  a  deliberate  attempt  to 
burlesque  a  certain  exaggerated  type  of  the  contemporary 

68  See  supra,  p.  62. 


114 

metrical  romance.  The  tale,  told  by  the  poet  himself,  is  in  some 
thirty-three  stanzas,  which  vary  in  form,  the  prevailing  type  hav- 
ing six  lines,  rhyming  a  a  b  c  c  b;  the  b  lines  of  three  accents ; 
the  others,  four.  The  whole  is  merely  a  caricature  of  the  tedi- 
ous and  senseless  details  of  the  less  admirable  examples  of  the 
metrical  romance,  dull,  vapid,  never-ending.  The  tale  is 
abruptly  broken  off  by  the  significant  statement,  "  Here  the 
Host  stinteth  Chaucer  of  his  Tale  of  Sir  Thopas." 

"  '  No  more  of  this,  for  goddes  dignitee,' 
Quod  oure  hoste,  '  for  thou  makest  me 
So  wery  of  thy  verray  lewednesse 
That,  also  wisely  god  my  soule  blesse, 
Myn  eres  aken  of  thy  drasty  speche — .' " 

But  Chaucer's  satire  does  not  end  with  the  Tales.  The 
House  of  Fame,  that  strange  but  powerful  mixture  of  satire  and 
pure  allegory,  while  not  a  formal  Satire,  is  yet,  in  effect,  largely 
satirical. 

This  important  poem,  two  thousand  one  hundred  and  fifty- 
eight  lines  in  length,  is  written  in  tetrameter  couplets  and  is 
allegorical  in  form.  While  it  owes  much  to  Dante  both  in  gen- 
eral resemblances  and  in  particular  details,  it  is  in  no  sense  a 
parody  of  The  Divine  Comedy.  Chaucer  does  not  ridicule 
Dante's  work,  nor,  though  The  House  of  Fame  is  largely  sat- 
irical, does  he  use  a  dignified  form  as  a  vehicle  for  inferior 
or  ludicrous  subject-matter.59 

In  the  first  of  the  three  books  into  which  the  poem  is  divided 
the  poet  dreams.  He  finds  himself  in  a  glass  temple  dedicated 
to  Venus.  This  stands  for  the  realm  of  love-poetry  in  which 
Chaucer  has  been  idly  wandering.  He  steps  out  of  this  temple 
into  the  world  of  reality — and  finds  it  a  desert :  he  has  been  liv- 
ing a  life  too  remote  from  the  actual.60  From  the  desert,  the 
poet  is  carried  aloft  by  an  eagle  to  the  Temple  of  Fame,  be- 
twixt heaven,  earth,  and  sea.  Book  second  is  filled  with  a  de- 
scription of  the  journey  in  the  eagle's  claws.  The  third  book 

69  See  supra,  p.  20  ;  Ten  Brink,  Chaucer:  Studien,  etc.,  p.  88  f . ;  Rambeau, 
Chaucer's  "House  of  Fame,"  Eng.  Stud.,  Vol.  3,  p.  209. 
w  See  Root,  passim. 


115 

describes  the  House,  built  on  a  rock  of  ice,  slippery,  imperma- 
nent, engraved  with  multitudinous  names,  many  fast  fading1, 
some,  on  the  northern  side — the  side  of  toil  and  effort — standing 
eternal.  Within,  upon  a  throne  of  carbuncle,  sits  the  goddess 
Fame,  many-eyed,  many-eared,  many-tongued,  changing  in 
form  incessantly, — for  earthly  fame  ever  waxes  and  wanes, — 
while  the  Muses  sing  eternally  her  praise.  Countless  are  the 
strange  personages  the  poet  finds  collected  together  in  this 
mighty  fane: 

'*  Ther  saugh  I  pleyen  logelours, 
Magiciens   and  tregetours, 
And  phitonesses,  charmeresses, 
Old  wicches,  sorceresses, 
That   use   exorsisaciouns 
And  eek  thise  f umigaciouns ; 
And  clerkes  eek,  which  conne  wel 
Al  this  magyke  naturel, 
That  craftely  don  hir  ententes, 
To  make,  in  certyn  ascendentes, 
Images,  lo,  through  which  magyk 
To  make  a  man  ben  hool  or  syk." 

Now  are  made  manifest  the  inexplicable  caprices  of  Fame. 
Before  her  kneel  nine  successive  companies.  The  first  ask  fame 
for  their  good  works,  but  are  denied  report  either  good  or  ill. 
Still  others  obtain  the  renown  they  merit  for  their  goodness. 
Some  who  have  done  good  wish  only  oblivion — and  receive  it. 
Others  desire  the  same,  but  obtain  fame  unwillingly.  One 
company  who  have  done  nothing  ask  and  gain  fame  unde- 
served ;  others  who  ask  for  unmerited  fame,  gain  but  slander. 
Wicked  men  pray  for  good  report  and  obtain  it.  Still  others 
who  have  done  evil  are  denounced  by  yEolus  through  his  trump 
of  ill-report.  Finally,  as  a  crowning  caprice  of  Fame,  a  com- 
pany of  those  who  really  merit  well  are  rewarded  only  with 
eternal  obloquy. 

Now  the  poet  is  carried  by  the  eagle  to  the  House  of  Rumor, 
a  cage  built  of  twigs,  sixty  miles  long.  Here,  under  Rumor's 
sway,  men  are  constantly  seeking  news,  circulating  reports,  dis- 
torting, exaggerating : 


116 

"  And  every  wight  that  I  saugh  there 
Rouned  ech  in  otheres  ere 
A  news  tyding  prevely, 
Or  elles  tolde  al  openly 
Right  thus,  and  seyde :  '  Nost  not  thou 
That  is  betid,  lo,  late  or  now  ? ' 
'  No/  quod  [the  other] ,  '  tel  me  what ;  '- 
And  than  he  tolde  him  this  and  that 
And  swore  there-to  that  hit  was  sooth  - 


"  But  al  the  wonder-most  was  this : — 
When  oon  had  herd  a  thing,  y-wis, 
He  com  forth  to  another  wight, 
And  gan  him  tellen,  anoon-right, 
The  same  that  to  him  was  told, 
Or  hit  furlong-way  was  old, 
But  gan  somewhat  for  to  eche 
To  this  tyding  in  this  speche 
More  than  hit  ever  was." 

In  one  corner  of  the  vast  exchange,  where  love-tidings  are 
received,  the  poet  hears  a  great  noise.  With  this,  the  unfinished 
poem  abruptly  ends. 

What  is  satirized  in  The  House  of  Fame?  The  caprices  of 
fortune  and  reputation,  the  dissemination  of  slander,  the  exag- 
gerations of  rumor.  Thus  far,  the  satire  is  general.  But  we 
seem  to  hear  a  personal  note  also.  The  great  poet  is  perhaps 
here  voicing  his  own  sovereign  contempt  for  slander,  rumor,  the 
vicissitudes  of  fortune,  and  most  of  all,  for  the  insensate 
caprices  of  Fame.  All  this  satire,  incidental,  informal,  is  narra- 
tive and  descriptive.  It  is  entirely  social,  but  far  more  severe 
than  Chaucer's  wonted  tone.  The  dramatic  method  is  main- 
tained, however,  though  the  allegorical  form  necessarily  pre- 
cludes the  lambent  humor  and  the  sparkling  wit  of  the  Tales. 

The  minor  poems  of  Chaucer,  while  not  entirely  free  from 
occasional  satirical  touches,  offer  little  that  is  new  or  signifi- 
cant. The  balade  Against  Women  Unconstant,  is  not  genuinely 
satirical,  nor  is  the  Lenvoy  de  Chaucer  a  Scogan.  But  the  Len- 
voy  a  Bukton,  against  marriage,  in  its  irony,  half  playful,  half 


117 

bitter,  is  true  satire.     This  envoy  is  in  four  eight-line  stanzas, 
rhyming  ababbcbc;  and  the  best  of  it  is  the  following : 

"  I  wol  nat  seyn,  how  that  hit  is  the  cheyne 
Of  Sathanas,  on  which  he  gnaweth  ever, 
But  I  dar  seyn,  were  he  out  of  his  peyne, 
As  by  his  wille,  he  wolde  be  bounde  never. 
But  thilke  doted  fool  that  eft  hath  lever 
Y.-cheyned  be  than  out  of  prisoun  crepe, 
Qod  lete  him  never  fro  his  wo  dissever 
Ne  no  man  him  bewayle,  though  he  wepe." 

Since  his  satire  is  almost  wholly  social,  Chaucer  disregards  as 
unfitted  to  his  purpose  the  political  events  and  the  public  dis- 
asters of  the  stormy  time  in  which  he  lived.  All  this  subject- 
matter  is  left  for  others  to  treat,  and  finds  scarcely  an  echo  in 
his  verse.  He  seems  to  be  as  little  affected  by  these  passing 
conditions  as  he  is  by  the  other  satirical  productions  of  his  time. 
He  stands  apart,  amused,  critical,  uninfluenced  by  his  contem- 
poraries. It  seems  impossible  to  establish  any  connection  be- 
tween his  methods  of  satire  and  those  of  his  English  predeces- 
sors, or  indeed  with  the  methods  of  those  who  follow  him.  No 
work  comparable  with  this  had  been  produced  in  England  or  on 
the  Continent;  and  nothing  equal  to  it  as  verse-satire  was  to 
appear  again  in  England  for  almost  three  centuries.  Indeed, 
even  in  the  evolution  of  English  satirical  poetry,  Chaucer  stands 
apart,  and  can  hardly  be  said  to  form  a  real  link.  Yet,  in  his 
careful  observation  of  inconsistences  in  conduct,  his  method  of 
selection,  his  power  to  draw  the  portraits  of  social  types,  his 
pervading  humor  and  wit,  Chaucer  anticipates  the  finished 
satire  of  Dryden  and  of  Pope. 


CHAPTER   IV 
FROM  LYDGATE  TO  THE  RENAISSANCE 

Decline  of  satire  after  the  time  of  Chaucer.— Lydgate.— London  Lick- 
penny. — Ragman  Roll. — Political  Satire. — Absence  of  satire  under  Henry  IV 
and  Henry  V. — Satire  against  Burgundy. — Allegorical  satire :  cognizances 
of  the  nobles. — Personal  satire. — Suffolk. — Political  satire. — Lancaster  and 
York. — Religious  satire. — The  friars. — Social  satire. — How  Myschaunce 
regneth  in  Ingeland. — Contribution  made  by  this  age  to  the  Satire. 

Chaucer's  immediate  successors,  while  they  did  not  perpetu- 
ate his  methods  of  satire,  at  least  endeavored  to  imitate  his 
style,  and  traces  of  his  influence  are  to  be  found  in  many 
anonymous  productions  within  the  fifty  years  following  his 
death.  The  rhymed  couplet  that  enabled  Chaucer  to  antici- 
pate the  rounded  apothegm  and  epigrammatic  point  of  a  much 
later  satirical  school,  was  unfortunately  abandoned,  however; 
and,  in  satiric  poetry,  only  the  stanzaic  forms  were  utilized. 
With  this  reversion,  came  again  the  looseness  of  structure, 
the  repetition,  the  lack  of  progress  and  climax,  that  had  pre- 
viously characterized  English  satirical  poetry.  Chaucer,  stu- 
dent of  society  and  close  observer  as  he  was,  could  not  teach 
others  his  art.  Hence  satire  continued  its  prosy  way  uninter- 
rupted, on  the  old  lines  of  general  and  ineffective  diatribe  and 
moral  disquisition,  with  their  modicum  of  humor  and  their 
remoteness  from  actual  life.  The  exceeding  humanity  of 
Chaucer's  poetry  had  merely  preluded  the  Renaissance,  not 
commenced  it.  His  dawn  soon  faded  away,  as  the  ecclesias- 
tical influence  again  prevailed.  Again  the  individual  was  lost 
in  the  generalization.]  Again  at  every  step  was  intruded  the 
conventional  moral,  and  again  platitudes  were  substituted  for 
acute  criticism  founded  on  observation  of  life.  Wit  and 
humor  as  the  supremely  effective  weapons  of  satirical  attack1 
could  not  be  utilized  under  these  conditions.  Such  is,  in  gen- 
eral, the  character  of  the  satirical  poetry  produced  within  the 

I  *  See  supra,  p.  8. 

118 


- 


119 

thirty  years  after  Chaucer  ceased  to  portray  actual  life ;  when 
Lydgate  and  Occleve  were  the  great  names  in  contemporary 
literature.  Their  productions  are  extremely  literary,  self- 
conscious,  and  reflective;  far  removed  from  that  stream  of 
popular  satire  which  continually  flows  unheeded,  and  which, 
had  Occleve  and  Lydgate  drunk  of  it,  might  have  given  vital- 
ity to  their  dull  and  barren  diatribes. 

The  inconsistency  of  men's  actions  is  one  of  Lydgate's 
themes,  in  a  poem  of  which  every  stanza  ends  with  "  It  may 
wele  ryme,  but  it  accordith  nought."  2  There  is  here  certainly 
no  lack  of  perception  of  general  inconsistencies,  but  the  percep- 
tion arouses  no  sense  of  humor  in  the  poet ;  quite  the  contrary. 
The  poem  is  not  without  clearness  and  point,  fair  metrical 
form,  and  unimpeachable  morality ;  but  at  best  how  vague  and 
futile  it  seems  after  the  vital  satire  of  Chaucer  or  even  the 
merely  popular  political  ballad !  "  Flesh  and  spirit,"  says  the 
worthy  monk  of  Bury,  "  are  incompatible  as  fire  and  water. 
No  man  can  serve  two  masters  " : 

"  A  mighti  kyng,  a  poore  regioun, 
An  hasty  hede,  a  comunalte  nat  wise, 
Mikel  almes-dede,  and  false  extorcioun, 
Knyghtly  manhode,  and  shameful  cowardise ; 
An  hevenly  hevene,  a  peneful  paradise, 
A  chast  doctryne  withe  a  false  thought, 
First  don  on  heede,  and  sithen  witte  to  wise, 
It  may  wele  ryme,  but  it  accordith  nought." 

— and  so  on  through  eleven  stanzas  of  admirable  platitudes. 
And  in  its  abstract  subject-matter,  didactic  tone,  lack  of 
humor,  and  general  ineffectiveness,  the  same  poet's  A  Tale  of 
Thescore  Folys  and  Thre  is  a  worthy  companion  piece.3  This 
is  a  contribution  to  that  mass  of  medieval  "  fool-satire  "  which 
is  to  culminate  in  Sebastian  Brandt's  Narrenschiff*  at  the  end 
of  the  century.  The  old  classical  idea  of  the  essential  foolish- 
ness of  any  deviation  from  the  moral  norm,  is  utilized  by 
Lydgate  in  a  fashion  that  might  have  evoked  a  smile  from 

2  Lydgate's  Minor  Poems,  ed.  Halliwell,  Percy  Soc.  Pub.,  No.  2,  p.  55  f. 
*Ibid.,  p.   164  f. 
*  See  infra,  p.  155  f. 


120 

• 
Juvenal  himself.     Just  as  the  medieval  cyclopaedia  embodied 

all  human  knowledge,  so  here  the  precise  moralizer  distinctly 
defines  every  possible  species  of  folly.  There  are  precisely 
sixty-three — no  more,  no  less — in  the  moral  universe.  From 
these  types  there  can  be  no  variation.  This  is  the  ne  plus 
ultra,  with  limits  set  and  classes  catalogued.  One  stanza  alone 
may  illustrate  the  beautiful  rigidity  and  finality  of  this  medi- 
eval system  of  character  analysis : 

"  The  chief  of  foolis,  as  men  in  bokis  redithe, 
And  able  in  his  folly  to  hold  residence, 
Is  he  that  nowther  lovithe  God  ne  dredithe, 
Nor  to  his  chirche  hathe  none  advertence, 
Ne  to  his  seyntes  dothe  no  reverence, 
To  fader  and  moder  dothe  no  benyvolence, 
And  also  hathe  disdayn  to  folke  in  poverte, 
Enrolle  up  his  patent,  for  he  shal  never  the." 

In  Lydgate's  two  satirical  poems  on  the  times,  So  as  the 
ICrabbe  gothe  forward e?  and  As  Straight  as  a  Ram's  Horn* 
we  might  expect  perchance  a  little  gain  in  human  interest,  a 
closer  observation  of  men.  We  are  disappointed.  The  sub- 
ject-matter is  as  general,  the  intent  as  didactic,  as  ever.  But 
the  ironical  tone  marks  a  real  gain.  A  cruder  form  of  irony 
could  scarcely  be  possible,  for,  lest  we  think  the  good  monk 
serious,  he  closes  each  stanza  with  the  assurance  that  this  ideal 
state  of  affairs  is  no  more  actual  than  the  fact  that  a  crab 
travels  forwards  or  that  a  ram's  horn  follows  a  right  line. 
But  irony  it  is,  rather  bitter  than  humorous,  yet  a  cause  for 
thanksgiving  amid  a  dreary  waste : 

'  This  world  is  ful  of  stabilnesse, 
There   is  therein  no  variance, 
But    trowthe,    feythe,    and    gentilnesse, 
Secretnesse  and  assurance, 
Plente,  joye,  and  plesaunce, 
By  example  who  can  have  rewarde, 
Verraily  be  resemblance, 
So  as  the  crabbe  gothe  forwarde." 

5  Ibid.,  p.  58  f. 
•  Ibid.,  p.  171  f. 


121 

A  Satyrical  Ballad,7  said  to  have  been  written  by  Lydgate,  }  ^ 
as  given  by  Wright,  is,  though  perhaps  no  ballad,  certainly 
satirical.  On  the  face  of  it,  it  looks  personal,  but  its  chief 
figure,  "  Maymond," — a  lazy,  idle,  dissipated  young  knave, 
whose  chief  accomplishment  is  to  "  pluk  out  the  lyneng  of  a 
bolle," — is  probably  a  type  rather  than  an  individual. 

London  Lickpenny,  formerly  attributed  to  Lydgate,  but  \ 
now  acknowledged  to  be  of  unknown  authorship,8  gives  an 
interesting  and  fairly  vivid  picture  of  London  life,  somewhat 
after  the  method  of  Langland.  The  poet  makes  a  journey  to 
London,  but  is  disappointed  in  obtaining  anything,  even  jus- 
tice, without  money.  "  But,  for  lack  of  money,  I  cold  not 
spede,"  he  cries  cynically  and  not  without  humor,  as  he  de- 
scribes his  visit  to  lawyers  for  justice ;  to  cooks  and  hucksters 
for  food;  to  merchants,  for  clothing;  to  tavern-keepers  for 
shelter ;  to  barge-men  for  a  boat — all  in  vain ;  not  charity,  but 
universal  avarice  sways  the  hearts  and  purses  of  the  metropo- 
lis. Not  only  does  the  seeker  for  justice  fail  in  his  mission, 
but  he  has  his  hood  stolen  soon  after  beginning  his  search. 
Finally,  he  is  returning  home  in  despair,  when  he  espies  the 
said  hood  already,  with  commendable  mercantile  despatch,  dis- 
played for  sale : 

Into  Cornhyll  anon  I  yode 

where  is  moche  stolne  gere  amonge 

I  saw  wher  henge  myne  owne  hode 

that  I  had  lost  in  Westminster  amonge  J?e  throng 

then  I  beheld  it  with  lokes  full  longe 

I  kenned  it  as  well  as  I  dyd  my  crede 

to  by  myne  hode  agayne,  me  thought  it  wrong 

but  for  lack  of  money  I  might  not  spede 

In  its  realistic  and  fairly  humorous  description  of  actual  life,  / 1 
London  Lickpenny  more  nearly  attains  the  truly  satirical  than     / 

7  Reliquice  Antiques,  ed.  Wright,  vol.  i,  p.   13. 

8  There  seems  to  be  no  evidence  either  external  or  internal  that  London 
Lickpenny  is  the  work  of  Lydgate.     There  are  two   existing  MSS.  of  the 
poem,   Harley  542   and  Harley  367.     The  latter,  until   recently  considered 
the  authentic  text,  is  merely  a  sixteenth  century  recension.     See  the  work 
of  Miss  Eleanor  P.  Hammond,  Anglia,  vol.  20,  whose  text  is  used  here. 


122 

any  other  production  of  its  time.  For  Occleve,  apart  from 
the  poem  addressed  to  Sir  John  Oldcastle,  never  remotely  ap- 
proaches a  satirical  tone.  A  blood-thirsty  appeal  to  Henry  V, 
beseeching  that  orthodox  monarch  to  root  out  heresy,  forbid 
religious  disputation,  and  slay  the  foes  of  Christ;9  and  a 
Ballade,10  occasioned  by  Richard  the  Second's  interment  in 
Westminster,  containing  a  similar  appeal,  are  his  sole  contri- 
butions to  destructive  criticism.  And  Occleve  was  as  innocent 
of  humor  as  he  was  of  poetical  talent. 

Produced  at  this  same  period,  the  anonymous  tract  known 
as  Ragman  Roll11  is  one  of  the  earliest  of  those  conventional 
attacks  on  women  which  later  became  so  common.12  We  have 
had  the  type  exemplified  two  centuries  earlier  in  the  Goliardic 
poem,  De  Conjuge  non  Ducenda,  and  shall  meet  it  again  and 
again  for  two  centuries  to  come.  The  verse  of  Ragman  Roll 
is  in  Chaucerian  style,  but  the  poem  as  a  whole  is  an  odd  mix- 
ture of  eulogy  and  vulgar  'abuse.  Women  of  all  types  are 
represented,  and  each  stanza  contains  a  separate  portrait,  some 
very  noble  tributes  to  womanly  character  alternating  with 
others  very  gross  and  abusive.  From  among  these,  says  the 
writer,  the  reader  may  select  as  best  pleases  her.  Bits  of  irony 
abound,  such  as 

"  O  constant  womane,  stabill  as  the  mone." 

A  poem  contemporary  with  Ragman  Roll,  Syr  Peny™  also 
recalls  Goliardic  times,  and  is  an  imitation  of  De  Nummo, 
above  mentioned.14  It  is  one  of  the  conventional  ballads  on 
money  that  are  to  become  more  common  a  century  later. 
/y  Apart  from  these  unimportant  productions,  and  certain 
others  of  like  tenor,  we  find  through  the  greater  part  of  the 

*Hoccleve's  Minor  Poems,  ed.  Furnivall,  E.  E.  T.  S.,  Ex.  sen,  No.  61, 
P-   39. 

10  Ibid.,  p.  47. 

11  Early  Popular  Poetry,  vol.  i,  p.  68  f ;  Anecdota  Literaria,  ed.  Wright, 
pp.  83-8. 

"See  infra,  p.  175  f. 

13  Early  Popular  Poetry,  I,  159;  for  A  Song  in  Praise  of  Sir  Penny,  see 
Ancient  Songs   and  Ballads    (1829),   I,    134. 

14  See  supra,  p.  42. 


123 

fifteenth  century  little  but  political  satire.  Far  removed  from 
literary  tradition,  such  satire  has  the  advantage  of  live  subject- 
matter  and  popular  appeal.15 

The  absence  of  any  satirical  attack  against  Henry  IV  would 
seem  to  indicate  that  he  was  welcomed  by  all  classes  of  the 
people.  The  unsuccessful  conspiracy  against  his  life  and 
throne  made  by  Rutland,  Kent,  Salisbury,  and  other  disaf- 
fected nobles,  was  too  personal  an  affair  to  find  any  echo  in 
verse.  But  it  is  rather  remarkable  that  the  great  revolt  of 
the  Welsh  under  Owen  Glendower,  in  1402;  and  the  rebellion 
of  the  Percies,  which  was  quelled  at  Shrewsbury,  furnish  us 
with  no  extant  political  poems  either  popular  or  academic.  It  is 
not  until  1405  that  these  revolts  against  the  house  of  Lancaster 
are  recorded  in  any  partisan  verse.  In  favor  of  the  young  Earl 
of  March,  whom  Henry  was  keeping  in  confinement,  Northum- 
berland had  formed  a  second  conspiracy.  Among  his  asso- 
ciates were  young  Thomas  Mowbray,  Duke  of  Norfolk,  son 
of  Henry's  old  enemy;  and  Richard  Scrope,  Archbishop  of 
York,  brother  of  that  Earl  of  Wiltshire  whom  Henry,  on  his 
arrival  in  England,  had  so  summarily  beheaded.  The  plot 
was  frustrated,  and  both  Duke  and  Archbishop  were  executed 
at  York.  The  Archbishop  was  a  favorite  with  the  populace, 
who  straightway,  to  the  king's  disgust,  began  to  venerate  him> 
as  a  saint  and  make  pilgrimages  to  his  tomb.  The  prelate's 
fate  is  lamented  in  a  long  Latin  elegy  which  becomes  some-  •/ 
thing  of  an  attack  on  the  reigning  house  of  Lancaster.16  This, 
though  premature,  is  the  beginning  of  that  satire  produced  by 
the  Wars  of  the  Roses  which  is  to  follow  half  a  century  later.; 

The  writer  complains  of  the  haste  and  injustice  of  the  Arch- 
bishop's trial,  which  disregarded  his  rank  as  a  peer  and  his 
exemption  from  lay  jurisdiction.  His  sentence  is  described 
and  the  manner  of  his  conveyance  to  the  place  of  execution. 
We  are  told  how  the  Archbishop  encouraged  his  young  com- 

15  The  well-known  Turnament  of  Totenham  (see  Early  Pop.  Poetry,  3, 
82  f . ;  Ancient  Songs  and  Ballads,  i,  85)  is  a  humorous  burlesque,  but 
scarcely  satirical.  It  is  full  of  fun,  but  hardly  seems  a  true  parody  of  the 
romance  of  chivalry. 

1$  Political  Poems,  2,  114. 


124 

panion  Mowbray  to  meet  death  serenely.  The  prelate's  fate, 
and  that  of  others  who  perished  through  the  conspiracy,  is 
lamented.  The  whole  kingdom  has  suffered  in  the  death  of 
these  leaders,  says  the  eulogist. 

Apart  from  the  Lollard  poem  of  Jack  Upland,™  nothing  else 
| of  a  satirical  character  has  come  down  to  us  from  the  fourteen 
years  of  Henry  IV's  reign,  though  they  were  troubled  with 
internal  conspiracy,  with  wars  against  the  Scotch,  and  with. 
Welsh  rebellion.  Indeed,  it  is  not  such  periods  as  this  that 
give  us  a  great  variety  or  quantity  of  satire;  but  rather  the 
reigns  of  weak  or  unpopular  kings,  such  as  Edward  II,  Richard 
II,  and  Henry  VI,  when  internal  disorders  were  rife,  and  dis- 
asters abroad  inflamed  the  discord  at  home. 

As  with  the  reign  of  his  father,  so  it  was  with  that  of  Henry 
V,  who  succeeded  to  the  throne  of  1413.  Except  the  two 
poems  connected  with  Oldcastle,  nothing  approaching  the  sat- 
irical has  survived  to  us  from  the  brilliant  reign  of  the  Victor 
of  Agincourt.  Ballads  on  Agincourt  and  the  siege  of  Rouen 
we  have,  paeans  of  triumph,  but  no  echo  of  internal  strife  at  a 
time  when  it  would  seem  that  all  classes  of  society  were  united 
by  one  spirit  of  national  enthusiasm.  During  a  period  of  suc- 
cessful foreign  wars,  such  as  that  of  the  early  years  of  Edward 
III  and  of  Henry  V,  what  satire  we  find  is  directed  against  the 
foe,  and  notes  of  domestic  discord  are  drowned  in  the  great 
shout  of  national  victory. 

This  tide  of  foreign  conquest  continued  to  rise  for  years 
after  the  death  of  Henry  V  in  14.22.  Yet  the  position  of  the 
English  abroad  was  rendered  precarious  by  the  defection  of  the 
Duke  of  Burgundy,  their  old  and  powerful  continental  ally. 
Dissatisfied  with  the  attitude  of  the  English,  Burgundy  broke 
the  alliance,  and  to  the  grief  and  rage  of  his  former  allies  made, 
in  1435,  a  separate  treaty  with  France.  In  the  following  year 
he  attacked  that  darling  of  the  English  heart,  Calais.  The 
siege  was  unsuccessful,  but  the  Duke's  bad  faith  seems  to  have 
aroused  all  classes  of  the  English  people,  for  the  event  is  re- 
corded in  a  number  of  political  poems  that  are  at  once  a  per- 

17  See  supra,  p.  90  f. 


125 

sonal  attack  on  the  Duke  and  on  all  Burgundians,  and  a  ming- 
ling of  invective  and  genuine  ridicule  that  marks  a  striking 
advance  beyond  any  previous  political  satire.  The  first  dart  is 
hurled  in  a  short,  imperfect  English  poem  in  which  Philip  of 
Burgundy  is  upbraided  for  having  forgotten  the  succor 
afforded  him  by  Henry  V — to  whom  he  vowed  faithful  allegi- 
ance. On  the  holy  sacrament  was  this  vow  made,  and  Philip 
is  now  false  both  to  God  and  man!18  Burgundy  evidently 
made  an  overture  also  to  the  Scottish  King,  James  I,  for  some 
clerk,  in  a  short  poem  in  Latin  hexameters,  declares  that  both 
rulers  are  treacherous,  and  that  alliance  between  Scotland  and 
Burgundy  is  natural,  for — 

"  Est  et  semper  erit  similis,  similem  sibi  quaerit ; 
Ambo  perjuri,  sunt  ambo  simul  perituri."19 

The  siege  of  Calais  itself  is  celebrated  in  two  excellent  bal- 
lads, largely  burlesque  in  tone,  which  are  quite  the  best  political 
satire  yet  produced  in  England.  The  first  minstrel  begins  in 
romantic  style,  and  tells  how  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  assembled 
his  chivalry  from  Flanders,  Picardy,  Burgundy,  Brabant, 
Hainault,  and  Holland.  The  gay  appearance  of  the  troops  is 
described,  and  their  extensive  preparations  for  the  siege.20  The 
second  and  much  superior  ballad21  also  contains  a  burlesque 
account  of  the  action,  but  is  couched  in  the  form  of  a  direct 
address  to  the  Flemings,  who  are  taken  as  the  representatives 
of  the  entire  Burgundian  realm.  It  is  rather  remarkable  for 
its  burlesque  tone  and  genuine  satire,  as  well  as  for  its  un- 
usually melodious  verse,  and  connects  itself  with  the  songs  of 
Lawrence  Minot  and  the  popular  ballads  of  the  reign  of 
Edward  III : 

"  Remembres  now  ye  Flemyng,  upon  your  owne  shame 
When  ye  laid  seege  to  Caleis  ye  wer  right  full  to  blame 
For  more  of  reputacion  ben  Englisshmen  Ipen  ye, 
And  comen  of  more  gentill  bloode,  of  olde  antiquitee 
For  Flemyng  com  of  flemed  men,  ye  shall  well  understand, 
For  flamed  men  &  banished  men  enhabit  first  youre  land !  " 

18  Political  Poems,  2,  148. 

19  Political  Poems,  2,  150. 
"Ibid.,  2,  151. 

21  Archaologia,  33,  130. 


126 

Shortly  after  this  series  of  events,  and  fifty  years  after  the 
balla^  on  King  Richard's  ministers  in  I399,22  we  meet  again  the 
interesting  and  thoroughly  -popular  form  of  satire  exemplified 
in  that  ballad — viz.,  the  satire  in  which  great  noblemen  are 
allegorically  represented  by  their  cognizances.  This  peculiar 
style  is  confined  mainly  to  the  political  poetry  of  the  Wars  of 
the  Roses.  During  that  miserable  epoch,  no  dweller  outside  the 
towns  was  safe  unless  enrolled  under  the  banner  of  some  feudal 
lord  and  wearing  his  livery.  Knights,  squires,  yeomen  flocked 
to  the  standards  of  Warwick,  of  Salisbury,  of  Somerset ;  and, 
although  the  whole  system  was  actually  tottering  to  its  fall,  un- 
dermined by  new  conditions,  the  army  of  retainers  possessed 
by  a  great  noble  of  this  period  was  greater  than  ever  before  in 
English  history.  Hundreds  or  thousands  of  retainers  of  many 
a  great  noble  ravaged  the  country,  marched  through  city  and 
village  up  to  parliament  at  Westminster,  or  met  on  the  field  of 
battle*;  and  it  was  inevitable  that  such  standards  as  Warwick's 
Bear  and  Ragged  Staff,  Gloucester's  Swan,  and  Exeter's  Cres- 
set, should  be  recognized  by  all  classes  of  .the  people.  Thus, 
until  Edward  IV  was  firmly  seated  on  the  throne,  and  the 
feudal  system  fallen  with  Warwick  at  Barnet,  this  peculiar  and 
characteristic  method  was  employed  by  all  the  political  satire 
of  that  period  of  civil  conflict. 

In  1447,  Humphrey,  Duke  of  Gloucester,  and  his  great  rival, 
Cardinal  Beaufort,  both  passed  away;  leaving  William  de  la 
Pole,  first  Earl,  then  Marquis,  and  finally  Duke,  of  Suffolk, 
who  had  arranged  King  Henry's  marriage  with  Margaret  of 
Anjou,  the  only  minister  whose  counsel'  was  much  regarded  by 
the  king.  Three  very  unpopular  courtiers,  Daniell,  the 
"Lily";  Norris,  the  "Conduit";  and  Trevilian,  the  "Cor- 
nish Chough,"  stood  high  in  the  king's  favor,  and  were  hated 
by  the  people  as  the  promoters  of  unjust  taxation,  the  pro- 
ceeds of  which  they  were  accused  of  appropriating  largely  to 
their  own  use.  The  Duke  of  York,  a  great  fighter  and  actual 
heir  to  the  throne,  was  being  forced  out  of  his  neutral  atttiude, 
and  had  been  practically  banished  to  Ireland. 

22  See  supra,  p.  97. 


127 

All  these  conditions,  the  disasters  abroad,  the  dissensions  at 
home,  the  death  of  public  favorites,  and  the  supremacy  of 
hated  royal  advisors — best  known  to-day,  if  known  at  all, 
through  Shakespeare's  King  Henry  VI — are  mirrored  in  a  bal- 
lad produced  about  the  year  I449-23  Bedford,  the  Rote,  Glou- 
cester, the  Swan,  Exeter,  the  Cresset,  Norfolk,  the  White 
Lion,  Warwick,  the  Bear,  Arundel,  the  White  Hart,  Devon, 
the  Boar,  York,  the  Falcon,  are  all  mentioned: 

"  The  Rote  is  ded,  the  Swanne  is  goone, 
The  firy  Cressett  hath  lost  his  lyght; 
Therefore  Inglond  may  make  gret  mone, 
Were  not  the  helpe  of  Godde  almyght." 

The  unpopularity  of  Daniel,  and  also  of  Lord  Say,  the  Treas- 
urer, is  further  attested  by  another  poem  in  English  written 
about  the  same  time.  The  house  of  Lancaster  had  long  been 
proverbial  for  its  poverty.  The  expensive  foreign  wars  had 
drained  the  royal  treasury,  and,  since  the  days  of  Henry  IV,  the 
expenditure  of  the  government  had  greatly  exceeded  its 
revenue.  The  deficit  resulted  in  heavy  and  unjust  taxation, 
for  which  the  ministers  of  finance,  and  not  the  king,  were 
blamed.  The  popular  indignation  that  resulted  a  few  months 
later  in  "Jack  Cade's  Rebellion"  (1450),  finds  expression  in 
this  poem.  Suffolk's  unpopularity  is  growing.  He  has  been 
hated  ever  since  he  effected  the  King's  marriage,  which  in- 
volved a  cession  of  English  territory  in  France,  and,  as  the 
people  claimed,  a  loss  of  national  honor.  Continued  disasters 
abroad,  culminating  in  the  loss  of  Normandy,  are  all  laid  to  his 
charge;  the  unfortunate  and  almost  innocent  duke  is  made  a 
scapegoat  for  the  entire  maladministration  of  Henry's  reign. 

In  his  warning  to  King  Henry,24  the  writer  very  char- 
acteristically has  no  blame  for  the  weakness  of  his  King, 
but  rebukes  those  whom  he  considers  responsible  for  the 
domestic  dissensions.  "  Ye  that  have  extorted  grants  from  the 
king,  restore  them  or  else  fly  for  your  lives.  Ye  have  so  im- 
poverished the  king  that  perforce  he  begs  from  door  to  door. 

23  Excerpta  Historica,  ed.  Bentley,  p.  159;  Political  Poems,  2,  221  f. 

24  Excerpta  Historica,  p.  360 ;  Political  Poems,  2,  229. 


128 

Lord  Say,  and  Daniel,  begin  to  make  reparation,  or  you  perish ! 
Throughout  all  England  are  poverty  and  truth  oppressed,  and 
the  King  knoweth  it  not." 

Belonging  to  this  same  period  and  in  English,  though  far  less 
popular  in  character,  is  the  piece  of  invective  that  some 
enemy, — possibly  a  jealous  ecclesiastic,  though  he  seems  to 
voice  a  popular  sentiment, — has  directed  against  William 
Boothe — Bishop  of  Coventry  and  Lichfield  in  1447,  and  Arch- 
bishop of  York  in  1453. 25  Between  these  two  dates  the  poem 
was  written.  Bishop  Boothe  was  scarcely  a  sufficiently  promi- 
nent figure  in  the  political  life  of  his  time  to  be  coupled  with 
Suffolk  or  held  responsible  for  the  general  state  of  affairs.  But 
the  writer  seems  to  see  in  him  a  type  of  the  worldly,  simoniacal 
prelate,  in  every  way  unworthy  of  his  exalted  position,  and  an 
ill-adviser  of  the  King.  "  Boothe,  thy  wealth  bought  thee  pre- 
ferment, and  Chester  [Coventry  and  Lichfield]  cries  out 
against  the  indignity.  By  simony  thou  hast  feathered  thy 
nest,  and  all  the  world  knows  it !  " 

"  Prese  not  to  practise  on  the  privite 
Of  princes  powere,  but  pluk  at  the  ploughe; 
Clayme  thou  a  Carter  crafty  to  be; 
Medille  the  no  ferthere,  for  that  is  ynoughe. 
Thow  hast  getyne  gret  goode,  thou  wost  welle  how. 
By  symoni  and  usure  bilde  is  thy  bothe ; 
Alle  the  worlde  wote  welle  this  sawys  be  sothe." 

"But  may  God  save  the  king  from  Suffolk  and  all  his  other 
foes,  who  lead  him  to  destroy  such  men  as  Gloucester,  Bedford, 
and  Beaufort !  As  for  Boothe,  all  men  know  he  labors  but  for 
lucre." 

That  Suffolk  was  in  any  way  responsible  for  the  deaths  of 
Bedford,  Beaufort,  or  Gloucester,  was,  of  course,  totally  false. 
But  the  accusation,  and  the  frequent  mention  of  the  Duke's 
name,  show  how  the  clouds  are  gathering  around  his  head. 
Some  one  must  die  for  all  this  general  maladministration,  and 
Suffolk  is  to  be  the  victim. 

Our  next  ballad26  rejoices  over  the  arrest  of  the  unpopular 

25  Excerpta  Historica,  p.  357  f . ;  Political  Poems,  2,  225  f. 
28  Political  Poems,   2,   224   f. ;    for   the   satirical   ballad   in   general,   see 
supra,  p.  7. 


129 

minister.  This  was  in  1450,  when  the  loss  of  Normandy  and 
other  disasters  in  France  led  to  Suffolk's  impeachment  in  Par- 
liament under  various  preposterous  charges.  He  was  accused, 
among  other  things,  of  betraying  England  to  France,  and  of  de- 
siring to  elevate  his  son  to  the  throne.  Suffolk  was  popularly 
referred  to  as  the  "  Fox"  and  "  Jack  Napes,"  the  vulgar  name 
for  a  monkey.  The  present  ballad  expresses  the  joy  of  the  peo- 
ple at  his  arrest,  and  reiterates  the  charges  of  his  having  "  tied 
Talbot,27  our  dog,"  and  brought  "  good  "  Duke  Humphrey  of 
Gloucester  to  his  death. 

"  The  fox  hath  been  driven  to  his  hole ;  yet  some  of  you  are 
his  friends,  and  with  him  hunt  the  hares.  He  hath  tied  Tal- 
bot, our  dog :  evil  may  he  fare  for  it !  " 

Only  a  short  time  elapsed  before  Suffolk's  enemies  were  en- 
abled to  celebrate  in  verse  an  event  still  more  final  and  satis- 
factory than  his  arrest.  King  Henry  was  compelled  to  yield  to 
the  popular  clamor  against  his  minister,  and  bade  him  absent 
himself  from  England  for  five  years.  The  issue  was  dis- 
astrous, for  it  saved  neither  Suffolk's  life  nor  Henry's  reputa- 
tion. After  embarking  hastily  for  Flanders,  the  Duke  was 
overtaken  in  the  Channel  by  a  ship  called  "  Nicholas  of  the 
Tower,"  of  uncertain  commission,  but  of  very  certain  purpose, 
by  whose  master  he  was  saluted  with  the  ominous  greeting 
"  Welcome,  traitor,"  and  was  told  that  he  must  die.  After  a 
day  for  confession,  he  was  beheaded,  and  his  body  flung  on  the 
Dover  Sands. 

In  a  hideous  parody  of  the  Mass,  some  popular  writer  cele- 
brates the  unmitigated  joy  that  this  tragic  event  brought  to 
the  great  majority  of  the  English  people.28  It  is  a  personal 
attack  on  a  dead  man,  but  also  on  the  man  whom  the  people 
regarded  as  the  representative  of  treachery  and  national  dis- 
honor. The  absence  of  invective  only  renders  the  ironical 
personalities  more  terrible.  The  ballad  assembles  together  at 
the  death  of  the  hated  minister  every  unpopular  ecclesiastic  of 
the  realm,  among  them  Booth,  Bishop  of  "  Chester." 

27  Lord  Constable  of  England. 

28  Political,  Religious,  and  Love  Poems,  ed.  Furnivall,   E.  E.  T.   S.,  vol. 
15,  p.  6  f .    Ancient  Songs  and  Ballads,  i,  117;  Archceologia,  p.  29,  vol.  320 ; 
Turner,  Hist.  Eng.  (1830),  vol.  3,  p.  74;  Political  Poems,  2,  232  f. 


130 

However  unjust,  the  hatred  of  a  nation  is  a  terrible  thing; 
and  this  personal  attack  upon  Suffolk  was  the  sharpest  of  its 
kind  up  to  that  time  known  to  English  literature.  Parliament 
had  learned  its  power;  the  impeachment  of  royal  ministers 
was  now  its  right;  and  the  people,  too,  were  learning  to  ex- 
press their  opinion  in  "good  set  terms."  And  this  is  true 
despite  the  fact  that  Jack  Cade's  Rebellion  in  1450  found 
no  echo  in  verse  that  has  survived  to  the  present  day. 
It  won  its  cause,  for  the  sympathy  of  a  nation  was  with 
it;  and  hence  no  clerks  attacked  it  in  vituperative  Latin 
or  English  rhymes,  as  they  did  the  "  upstart  peasantry " 
in  1381.  It  is  true,  too,  that  during  the  Wars  of  the  Roses, 
from  the  first  battle  at  St.  Albans  in  1455  until  1471,  when 
Edward  IV  was  firmly  seated  upon  the  throne,  very  little 
really  satirical  poetry  was  produced  in  England.  But  political 
ballads  there  are  in  plenty,  paeans  of  victory,  eulogies  on  the 
leaders  of  both  parties,  abuse,  invective.  Many  of  the  bal- 
lads, which  show  a  distinct  gain  in  form  over  those  of  any 
preceding  period,  are  allegorical.  The  great  nobles  are  re- 
ferred to  by  their  cognizances,  as  in  the  more  satirical  poetry 
of  the  earlier  part  of  the  century.  March  is  the  Rose,  Salis- 
bury, the  Eagle,  Warwick,  the  Bear;  and  these,  together  with 
other  great  leaders,  figure  as  the  object  either  of  eulogy  or  of 
vituperation. 

It  was  probably  within  the  few  months  of  truce  before  the 
battle  of  Wakefield,  December  30,  1460,  that  some  Yorkist 
partisan  uttered  his  warning  to  the  Rose,  the  Eagle,  and  the 
Bear  against  the  wiles  of  the  Lancastrians.29  "  Beware,  lords 
of  York,  of  the  false  dealings  of  the  Lancastrians.  They  are 
arrant  hypocrites,  who  profess  to  admire  the  Rose  and  have 
stilled  their  barking  at  the  Bear;  yet  both  would  they  gladly 
destroy." 

Very  different  from  these  popular  and  enthusiastic  ballads 
is  that  Latin  poem  on  the  civil  war,  written  shortly  after  Tow- 
ton,  by  John  de  Wethamstede,  monk  of  St.  Albans.30  It  is 
a  chronicle  of  events  of  which  St.  Albans  was  the  center,  but 

29  Archaologia,  29,  340. 
80  Political  Poems,  2,  258. 


131 

the  reflections  upon  the  Lancastrians  are  frequent  and  bitter. 
The  civil  war  is  detailed  so  far  as  concerns  St.  Albans,  with 
severe  protest  against  the  outrages  committed  by  the  northern 
troops  of  the  Lancastrians.  The  battles  of  St.  Albans  and 
Wakefield  and  the  sack  of  the  abbey  are  described,  with  re- 
newed and  indignant  reproach  of  the  northern  troops  for  their 
gross  outrages.  The  poem  ends  with  a  defense  of  Edward's 
rights  to  the  throne  and  an  argument  of  Henry's  disability. 

The  popular  English  ballad  and  this  academic  Latin  chron- 
icle are  at  opposite  poles,  yet  both  go  to  show  the  well-nigh 
universal  feeling  that  placed  Edward  of  York  upon  the  throne. 
In  English,  and  in  very  tolerable  metre,  yet  more  like  the 
monkish  chronicle  than  like  the  ballad,  is  the  strangely  Chau- 
cerian political  tract  in  favor  of  the  Yorkist  party.31  The  poet 
must  have  written  between  the  time  of  Edward's  coronation  in 
1461  and  Warwick's  defection  some  three  years  later;  for  he 
represents  the  great  earl  as  still  loyal  to  York.  The  history 
of  the  house  of  Lancaster  is  traced;  the  evils  of  the  time 
ascribed  to  Queen  Margaret,  who  was,  indeed,  partly  responsi- 
ble for  them;  and  Warwick  and  Edward  are  extravagantly 
eulogized. 

It  is  inevitable,  during  such  a  period  of  strife  as  existed  in 
England  through  the  greater  part  of  the  fifteenth  century,  that 
such  satire  as  was  produced  should  be  mainly  political.  The 
Wars  of  the  Roses,  with  all  the  evils  of  their  tempestuous 
period,  seemingly  pushed  into  the  background  the  perennial 
sources  of  complaint.  Amid  the  strife  of  factions  and  the 
terrible  uncertainty  of  life  itself,  a  strife  and  an  uncertainty  in 
which  every  class  of  society  participated,  very  little  literature 
of  any  kind  was  produced,  and  the  satirical  part  of  this  prod- 
uct was  inevitably  colored  by  the  stormy  temper  of  the  times.32 

Yet  a  few  examples  of  religious  and  of  social  satire  appear 
even  in  this  period  of  political  upheaval.  Those  ecclesiastical 

81  Political  Poems,  2,  267. 

32  A  number  of  popular  ballads,  celebrating  Yorkist  victories  and  Yorkist 
heroes,  belong  to  this  period,  and  in  spirit  and  style  show  a  considerable 
gain  over  any  predecessors.  Interesting  in  themselves,  they  are  yet  eulo- 
gistic rather  than  satirical;  Archaologia,  29,  343;  2,  267;  29,  130;  Political 
Poems,  2,  271  ;  etc. 


132 

conditions  that  have  so  long  furnished  food  for  satire  have  not 
been  materially  mitigated.  Lollardry,  to  be  sure,  has  learned 
discretion,  and  after  1418  suffers  no  further  poetical  attack. 
That  the  friars,  however,  are  still  a  source  of  disquietude, 
appears  from  a  little  poem  in  alternate  English  and  Latin  lines 
produced  probably  in  the  early  part  of  Henry  the  Sixth's 
reign.33  In  form  and  tone  so  similar,  it  is  perhaps  a  direct 
imitation  of  two  poems  written  in  the  latter  part  of  the  previ- 
ous century.  "  Friars  are  false,  immoral,  lascivious,"  says 
the  accuser ;  "  it  is  dangerous  for  a  householder  to  admit  them 
into  the  same  house  with  his  wife  and  daughters." 

It  is  not  until  the  beginning  of  the  civil  strife  in  1456  that 
we  find  the  next  conventional  complaint  of  the  kind, — in  this 
instance,  a  lugubrious  wail  over  the  evils  of  the  times,  chiefly 
the  prevalence  of  deceit  in  the  State.  Each  one  of  the  ten 
stanzas  ends  "  For  now  the  bysom  leads  the  blind,"  or  with 
a  slight  variation  of  this  refrain.34  Probably  by  this  same 
sombre  critic,  certainly  employing  similar  material  and  treated 
in  a  like  tone,  though  more  elaborate,  is  the  complaint  entitled 
How  myschannce  regneth  in  Ingeland.  Each  of  its  nineteen 
stanzas  ends  with  the  refrain  "  Of  al  oure  synnys,  God,  make 
a  delyveraunce." 35  The  writer,  very  pardonably  rendered 
pessimistic  by  the  deplorable  conditions  surrounding  him,  sums 
up  the  immoralities  of  his  time  in  Church,  State,  and  Society — 
vice  after  vice  being  taken  up  and  directly  inveighed  against 
in  stanza  after  stanza,  without  either  the  personification  or  the 
attack  on  social  classes  which  marked  the  period  before  the 
Wars  of  the  Roses. 

The  extravagances  of  Edward  the  Fourth's  court  were  per- 
haps responsible  for  a  short  diatribe  against  the  corruption  of 
public  manners,  in  which  gallants  and  priests  are  the  special 
objects  of  censure:36 

"  Ye  prowd  gelonttes  hertlesse, 
With  your  hyghe  cappis  wittlesse, 

M  Political  Poems,  2,  249. 

"Ibid.,  2,  235;  Reliquia  Antiques,  2,  238. 

K  Political  Poems,  2,  238. 

"Political  Poems,   2,   251. 


133 

And  your  schort  gownys  thriftlesse, 

Have  brought  this  londe  in  gret  hevynesse." 

In  these  several  pieces,  we  have  a  great  deal  of  conventional 
complaint;  satirical  commonplace,  moral,  sombre,  wholly  des- 
titute of  humor,  however  inspired,  perchance,  by  genuine  feel- 
ing. Such  trite  lament  may  be  sincere :  it  is  certainly  ineffec- 
tive. The  real  contribution  that  this  age — from  Chaucer  to 
the  Renaissance — makes  to  the  Satire,  is  the  marked  advance 
in  the  public  capacity  for  satirical  expression,  accompanied  by 
a  certain  amount  of  genuine  humor. 


CHAPTER   V 
HENRYSON,  DUNBAR,  SKELTON,  AND  BARCLAY 

The  Renaissance. — Robert  Henryson. — His  Fables. — The  Dog,  the  Scheip, 
and  the  Wolf. — The  Wolf  and  the  Lamb. — Their  significance. — Dunbar. — 
His  range  of  subject-matter  and  tone. — His  humor. — His  power  in  the 
grotesque. — His  satirical  poems. — Dunbar  as  a  satirical  poet. — Skelton. — 
The  New  Learning. — Skelton's  life. — His  peculiar  verse. — His  heritage 
from  the  past. — The  Bouge  of  Court. — Elynour  Rummyng. — Speke  Parrot. — 
Wolsey. — Colyn  Cloute. — Skelton's  attitude  toward  reform. — Why  Come 
Ye  not  to  Courte? — Its  attack  on  Wolsey. — Its  place  as  a  Satire. — Skelton 
as  a  satirist. — Barclay. — Brandt. — The  Narrenschiff. — The  Ship  of  Fools. — 
Its  general  character. — Its  popularity. — Its  form. — Its  motley  company. — 
Its  satiric  methods. — Its  social  satire. — Its  lack  of  poetry. — Its  medievalism. 
— Its  glimpses  of  characterization. — Its  Renaissance  elements. — Barclay  vs. 
Skelton. — Influence  of  The  Ship  of  Fools. — Barclay's  Eclogues. — Change 
from  chronological  to  topical  treatment  in  the  following  chapters. 

With  the  reign  of  Henry  VII  came  the  Renaissance.  It 
|was  an  era  of  great  names.  The  stream  of  anonymous  and 
desultory  satire  seems  to  disappear  between  the  years  of  1480 
and  1520;  from  the  reign  of  Richard  III,  of  Henry  VII,  and 
the  early  years  of  Henry  VIII,  nothing  of  the  popular  product 
survives.  Instead,  we  find  the  same  subject-matter,  the  same 
tone,  exemplified  in  the  more  formal  and  elaborate  productions 
of  Barclay  and  of  Skelton  in  England;  of  Dunbar  and  of 
Lyndsay  in  Scotland.  Together  with  these,  though  a  far 
lesser  light  as  a  satirical  poet,  stands  Robert  Henryson,  the 
Scotchman,  who  deserves  mention  if  only  on  account  of  the 
unique  character  of  his  contribution  to  the  English  Satire. 
Henryson,  Dunbar,  Skelton,  and  Barclay,  may  well  be  treated 
together  in  the  present  chapter,  but  Lyndsay  will  find  more 
fitting  treatment  in  connection  with  the  Satire  of  the  Refor- 
mation. 

I 

Robert  Henryson,  the  poet  of  Robene  and  Makyne  and  The 
Testament  of  Cresseid,  wrote  also,  between  1470  and  1480, 

134 


135 

thirteen  "  fables."  1  These  are  largely  imitated  from  ^Esop, 
but,  rather  incongruously,  are  couched  in  Chaucer's  favorite 
rime  royal.  From  several  points  of  view  these  fables  are  of 
interest.  They  are  the  only  representatives  of  their  kind  in 
English  literature  before  the  time  of  Elizabeth,  at  least. 
Again,  while  all  are  thoroughly  didactic,  two  of  the  thirteen 
are,  in  a  certain  sense,  satirical.  These  two  are  The  Taill  of 
the  Dog,  the  Scheip,  and  the  Wolf,  and  The  Taill  of  the  Wolf 
and  the  Lamb. 

In  the  former,  the  Dog,  needy  and  poor  with  a  poverty  that 
is  not  honest,  determines  to  get  a  living  by  falsely  accusing 
the  innocent  sheep.  Judge  Wolf,  who  is  in  the  plot,  summons 
the  sheep  to  court.  The  Raven  is  apparitor ;  the  Kite  and  the 
Vulture  appear  as  advocates  for  the  Dog ;  and  the  Fox  is  clerk. 
The  Dog  asserts  that  he  has  paid  money  to  the  Sheep  for 
bread  which  the  latter  has  never  delivered.  The  Bear  and  the 
Badger,  appointed  by  the  Court  as  arbitrators,  of  course  de- 
cide the  case  against  the  Sheep,  after  lengthy  perusal  off 
Digests  and  of  Codes.  The  Sheep,  pleading  vainly  for  jus- 
tice, is  forced  to  travel  to  town  and  sell  the  wool  off  his  back 
to  buy  bread  for  the  rascally  Dog.  In  the  Moral  appears  the 
satire.  The  Sheep  is  the  poor  "  Commons  " ;  the  Wolf  is  the 
cruel  and  oppressive  Sheriff, — and  so  on.  The  whole  is  a  / 
stern  arraignment  of  the  Consistory  Courts — a  complaint  to 
be  echoed,  a  generation  later,  by  Lyndsay,  with  increased 
power. 

In  The  Wolf  and  the  Lamb,  the  familiar  apologue  of  ^Esop 
is  adorned  with  a  Moral  almost  as  long  as  the  fable.  The 
Lamb  is  the  tenant,  the  merchant,  or  the  laborer ;  the  Wolf  is 
the  lawyer,  the  rich  man,  or  the  lord.  The  poor  man  suffers 
the  same  lot  described  so  often  in  the  satire  south  of  the  Bor- 
der ;  and  Henryson  utters  his  complaint  with  the  homely  earn- 
estness and  deep  feeling  that  Lyndsay  was  to  give  to  the  same 
theme  in  his  Satire  of  the  Three  Estates: 

1  The  Poems  of  Robert  Henryson,  ed.  Laing,  Edinburgh,   1865.     A  later 
edition  is  edited  by  G.  Gregory  Smith,  Scot.  Text.  Soc.,  1906.     To  this  I    \ 
have  not  had  access. 


136 

"  His  hors,  his  meir  he  mon  lend  to  the  laird 
To  dring,  and  draw  in  court  or  in  cariage; 
His  servand,  or  his  self,  may  not  be  spaird 
To  swink  and  sweit,  withouttin  meit  or  wage. 
Thus  how  he  standis  in  laubour  and  bondage, 
That  scantlie  may  he  purches  by  his  maill, 
To  leve  upon  dry  breid  and  watter-caill." 

In  these  two  examples  we  find  the  didactic  fable  applied  to 
contemporary  themes.  They  are  neither  the  purely  moral 
apologues  of  yEsop  nor  the  fables  of  Marie  de  France 
or  of  LaFontaine.2  This  fact,  together  with  their  isolated 
position  in  the  history  of  English  literature,  render  at  least 
these  two  of  Henry  son's  fables  significant.  Furthermore, 
their  direct  vigor  and  moral  earnestness  point  the  way  to 
Lyndsay. 

II 

William  Dunbar's  satirical  verse,  though  without  appreciable 
influence  on  later  satire  south  of  the  Border,  yet  displays  many 
English  characteristics.  As  Dunbar,  during  an  almost  com- 
plete dearth  of  satirical  poetry  in  both  England  and  Scotland, 
continued  something  of  the  Chaucerian  traditions,  and,  in  the 
vigor  and  wit  of  his  satirical  verse,  far  surpassed  the  other 
productions  of  his  time,  it  may  be  well  to  consider  briefly  his 
contribution  to  the  Satire. 

At  last,  through  the  crafty  policy  of  Henry  VII,  England  and 
Scotland  were  at  peace.  Under  this  benign  and  unusual  condi- 
tion of  affairs,  Scottish  literature  again  flourished,  and  Dunbar 
— wit,  scholar,  court-poet,  and  priest — was  the  consummate 
flower  of  his  time.  Though  possessing  many  popular  Scottish 
characteristics,  Dunbar  was  yet  an  even  more  typical  product  of 
the  court  of  James  IV.  It  was  a  dissolute  court ;  and  Dunbar's 
poetry,  for  all  its  undercurrent  of  earnestness,  bears  the  stamp 
of  the  poet's  environment.  He  was  not  primarily  a  satirist. 
Indeed,  his  purely  satirical  poems  form  but  a  small  part  of  his 
productions,  and,  with  one  or  two  exceptions,  that  part  is  also 
unimportant.  The  poet  of  those  elaborate  Chaucerian  alle- 
gories, The  Thistle  and  the  Rose  and  The  Golden  Targe,  made 

2  See  supra,  pp.  27,  28. 


137 

of  his  short  and  formless  satirical  poems  mere  jeux  d' esprit, 
outlets  for  an  occasional  satirical  mood.  But  these  short  poems 
are  still  replete  with  vigor.  They  are  a  real  literary  product, 
far  removed  from  popular  satire,  representing,  in  the  main,  no 
popular  idea,  but  merely  the  poet's  personal  predilections. 
They  spring  from  no  great  moral  conviction,  and  are  calculated 
to  effect  no  great  moral  reform.  Dunbar  was  no  protestant 
by  nature,  but  a  close  observer  and  a  wit  who  wrote  either  to 
amuse  himself,  to  espouse  the  cause  of  his  patrons,  or,  perhaps, 
to  voice  the  discontent  arising  from  hope  of  preferment  long 
deferred.  It  naturally  resulted  that  he  dissipated  whatever 
satirical  force  he  possessed  in  a  number  of  little  efforts,  infor- 
mal and  occasional.  Consequently,  these  short  satirical  poems 
are  difficult  to  analyze  and  classify.  They  represent  a  side  cur- 
rent, though  a  highly  refreshing  one,  in  the  dreary  stream  of 
fifteenth  century  satire.  Something  of  their  spirit  may  have 
passed  into  Lyndsay's  poems,  but  what  Lyndsay  may  have  in 
common  with  Dunbar  is  probably  rather  the  native  Scottish 
character  than  any  personal  inheritance.  Yet,  despite  their  in- 
significant length,  their  apparently  purposeless,  and  certainly 
informal,  character,  Dunbar's  short  satirical  poems  possess 
some  unique  characteristics  which  upon  close  reading  grow 
more  and  more  apparent. 

In  something  less  than  a  dozen  poems3,  varying  from  forty 
to  five  hundred  and  thirty  lines  in  length,  the  poet  ranges 
through  political,  personal,  social,  and  religious  satire,4  with  an 
ease  and  felicity  amazing  to  one  who  has  followed  the  course 
of  previous  satire  in  English.  How  Dunbar  was  desyrd  to  be 
ane  Freir  ridicules  the  Franciscans ;  The  Turnament  hits  at  the 
galvanized  chivalry  of  James's  Court;  Tidings  from  the  Ses- 
sion4* touches  both  politics  and  society;  Ballat  of  the  Fenzeit 
Freir  is  wholly  personal;  The  Tua  Mariit  Wemen  and  the 
Wedo  is  wholly  social.  All  these  are  perhaps  equally  felicitous 
in  expression. 

3  The  Poems  of  William  Dunbar,  ed.  Small,  S.  T.  S.,  vol.  2,  vol.  4.     Edin- 
burgh and  London,  1893. 

4  See  supra,  p.  30  f. 

4a  This  is  the  editor's  title,  as  are  all  titles  given  in  modern  English. 


138 

Apart  from  this  versatility  in  the  choice  of  subject-matter, 
the  quality  and  range  of  Dunbar's  humor  are  also  noticeable. 
Chaucerian  as  he  was  in  his  more  elaborate  poems,  his  satirical 
poetry  shows  little  of  Chaucer's  sane,  consistent,  observation  of 
life  and  knowledge  of  human  nature.  Dunbar  is  Chaucerian 
now  and  then  in  a  happy  hit,  but  his  humor  has  nothing  of  the 
subtlety,  his  observation  nothing  of  the  realism,  of  Chaucer. 
On  the  other  hand,  this  humor  of  Dunbar's,  though  not  acute, 
has  an  extensive  field  of  activity.  It  is  moralistic  and  rather I  v 
bitter  in  Tidings  from  the  Session;  entirely  bitter  in  the  attack 
on  Donald  Owre ;  burlesque  in  the  Franciscan  ballad ;  and 
merely  grotesque  in  the  Turnament.  We  pass  from  the  savage, 
invective  of  one  or  two  personal  Satires  to  the  good-humored 
raillery  of  The  Telsouris  and  Sowtaris.  At  one  time  we  are 
listening  to  a  personal  diatribe,  of  which  one  would  have  fan- 
cied Dunbar  incapable ;  straightway  we  hear  some  homely  news 
from  the  "  Session  " ;  again  we  are  spirited  away  to  hell  to  wit- 
ness a  grotesque  tournament  between  tailors  and  cobblers.  The 
grotesque  is  Dunbar's  forte.  It  is  here  that  his  finer  qualities 
of  sincerity,  originality,  and  force  appear.  These  traits  go  far 
to  redeem  the  slenderness  of  the  product,  its  lack  of  great  pur- 
pose and  of  consistent  form ;  and  even  to  atone  for  a  less  par- 
donable coarseness  that  is  likely  to  creep  in  and  defile  Dunbar's 
best  work — a  coarseness  due,  however,  rather  to  the  poet's 
period  than  to  his  personality.  Indeed,  Dunbar's  remarkable 
force  in  grotesque  caricature  renders  his  best  work  quite  unique 
in  English  satire. 

The  form  of  these  various  satirical  poems,  with  one  notable 
exception,  is  stanzaic;  stanzas  of  five,  six,  seven,  eight,  ten, 
and  even  twelve  lines.  The  metres  are  equally  various;  but 
the  verse- form  invariably  fits  the  subject-matter — whether 
the  former  be  the  slow  rhythm  of  the  Tidings  from  the  Ses- 
sion or  the  rapid,  fierce  verse  of  the  invective  against  Donald 
Owre. 

Tidings  from  the  Session  is  written  in  eight  seven-line 
stanzas.  The  "  Session  "  is  the  Supreme  Court  recently  estab- 
lished. Two  countrymen  meet.  One  has  just  returned  from 


139 

Edinburgh,  and  gives  the  news :  "  People  do  not  trust  one 
another  there.  The  criminal  gets  the  best  of  honest  people. 
Many  are  the  hypocrites.  Some  win  their  suits  through  their 
army  of  retainers — others  by  bribery.  Some  perjure  them- 
selves; some  bless,  and  others  curse,  the  saints.  There  are 
wolves  in  sheep's  clothing,  and  all  manner  of  criminals." 

"  Sum  with  his  fallow  rownis  him  to  pleiss 
That  wald  for  invy  byt  of  his  neiss; 
His  fa  sum  by  the  oxstar  leidis; 
Sum  patteris  with  his  mowth  on  beidis, 
That  hes  his  mynd  all  on  oppressioun; 
Sum   beckis    full   law   and   schawis   bair  heidis, 
Wald  hike  full  heich  war  not  the  Sessioun." 

This  stanzaic  form  of  course  precludes  the  point,  the  antith- 
esis, and  the  epigram  of  the  couplet;  and  while  it  perhaps 
affords  lightness  of  touch  and  rapidity  of  movement,  it  also 
makes  against  any  steady  sequence  of  thought. 

In  material  for  satirical  treatment  Dunbar  was  rich :  of  this 
the  Court  of  James  IV  afforded  an  unlimited  quantity.  The 
short  jeu  d'esprit  in  twenty-six  lines  of  rhymed  couplets, 
Aganis  the  Solistaris  in  Court,  attacking  hangers-on  at  Court 
and  their  way  of  obtaining  favor,  seems  to  be  the  first  example 
in  English  of  what  may  be  termed  "Court-satire."  Chivalry 
had  decayed,  and  modern  courts,  replete  with  characteristic 
court  vices,  were  now  established  in  both  Scotland  and  England. 
Dunbar's  little  poem  is  a  pioneer,  and  its  species  is  to  be 
prolific  through  succeeding  centuries. 

Less  novel  and  original  is  the  social  Satire  beginning  Dev- 
orit  with  Dreme,  devysing  in  my  Slummer,  in  which  Dunbar, 
reverting  to  the  old  English  type  of  general  diatribe,  attacks  in 
turn  various  social  classes.  Despite  its  conventional  material, 
the  poem  has  in  it  more  life  and  sincerity  than  ordinarily  char- 
acterize its  species,  as  it  seems  to  have  been  inspired  by  imme- 
diate conditions.  This  conventional  satire  again  appears  in  the 
dull  diatribe,  Against  Evil  Women.  Such  poems  represent  not 
the  satirical  poet  Dunbar,  but  the  priest. 

That  Dunbar,  however,  is  capable  of  much  less  conventional, 


140 

and  much  more  original  and  effective,  satire  against  women 
appears  in  his  famous  but  highly  indecorous  The  Twa  Mariit 
Wemen  and  the  Wedo.  This  scathing  burlesque,  so  bitter  in 
its  implications,  is  written  in  five  hundred  and  thirty  lines  of 
the  old  alliterative  verse  to  which,  strangely  enough,  this  master 
of  stanzaic  form  now  reverts.  The  form  here  employed  is  indi- 
rect and  dramatic — that  of  a  conversation  between  the  two  mar- 
ried women  and  the  widow,  who  exchange  confidences  and 
divulge  their  conjugal  experiences  in  terms  indecorous,  unquo- 
table, but,  satirically,  not  ineffective.  This  poem  of  course  con- 
nects itself  with  the  perennial  Satires  on  women,5  though  its 
dramatic  method  makes  it  akin  to  Chaucer's  work  rather  than 
to  the  typical  poem  of  its  class,  and  its  bitter  gibes  and  horrible 
insinuations  fortunately  render  it  a  thing  apart. 

Scarcely  less  severe  than  Against  Evil  Women,  but  far  more 
vital  and  effective,  in  the  Satire  on  Edinburgh?  which  describes 
the  condition  of  the  city  streets,  and  rebukes  the  citizens  in  no 
measured  terms  for  allowing  in  their  capital  so  horrible  a  state 
of  affairs. 

In  complete  contrast  to  this  moralistic  tone,  is  the  burlesque — 
almost  grotesque — flavor  of  the  best  of  these  social  Satires,  The 
Turnament.  This  piece  includes  a  two-fold  object  of  ridicule — 
the  antiquated  and  perfunctory  chivalry  of  a  Renaissance  Court, 
which  struck  Dunbar  as  absurd,  and  the  trades  of  the  tailor  and 
the  cobbler,  which  seem  to  have  been  prominent  in  Dunbar's 
Edinburgh,  and  to  have  been  warmly  disliked  by  the  poet.  The 
form  of  the  burlesque  ballad  suits  the  gross  satirical  humor  of 
the  theme. 

Social  and  political  satire  are  combined  in  We  lordis  hes 
chosin  a  chiftane  mervellus,  addressed  to  Albany  (1520?). 
There  was  certainly  ample  material  for  satire  in  the  surprising 
political  conditions  that  developed  in  Scotland  after  Flodden 
Field.  The  regent  Albany,  whose  presence  seemed  essential 
to  the  political  welfare  of  the  nation,  continually  absented 

0  See  infra,  p.  175  f. 

"Cf.  Fergusson's  The  King's  Birth-Day  in  Edinburgh;  Auld  Reike ;  The 
Town  and  Country  Contrasted,  etc.  For  these  references  I  am  indebted  to 
Mr.  S.  L.  Wolff. 


Ul 

himself  in  France  and  left  his  country,  rent  by  domestic  dis- 
cord, to  care  for  itself. 

In  vice  most  vicius  he  excellis  (1506) — a  bitter  attack  on 
Donald  Owre — adds  a  personal  element  to  the  political.  This 
unrelieved  invective,  in  eight  six-line  stanzas,  directed  against 
the  rebel  and  political  pretender,  illegitimate  son  of  Angus 
of  the  Isles,  perhaps  represents  the  height  of  Dunbar's  talent 
for  invective: 

"  In  vice  most  vicius  he  excellis, 
That  with  the  vice  of  tressone  mellis; 
Thocht  he  remissioun 
Haif  for  prodissioun, 
Schame  and  susspissioun 
Ay  with  him  dwellis." 

Wholly  personal,  without  admixture  of  either  social  or  polit- 
ical elements,  is  the  famous  ballad  in  sixteen  eight-line  stanzas 
entitled  The  Fenseit  Freir  of  Tungland.  This  is  a  thoroughly 
justified  attack  on  an  impostor  named  Damian,  one  of  the  king's 
favorites,  who  worked  upon  his  master's  credulity.  The  poem 
gives  a  burlesque  account  of  Damian's  attempt  to  fly  into 
France.  Its  tone  represents  the  mean  between  Dunbar's 
soberer  attempts  and  the  wild  grotesquerie  of  such  ballads  as 
The  Turnament. 

Wholly  personal,  too,  is  The  Flyting  of  Dunbar  and  Ken- 
nedie,  which  must  be  mentioned  here  if  only  to  say  that  this 
remarkable  piece  of  mock-invective  is  in  no  way  satirical.7" 
Walter  Kennedy,  the  poet,  was  Dunbar's  contemporary  and 
friend.  The  "  flyting  "  of  the  two  embodies  merely  an  inter- 
change of  ridicule,  good-natured,  so  far  as  we  can  judge, 
without  any  satirical  motive  whatever. 

The  Dance  of  the  Sevin  Deidly  Synnis  is  perhaps  Dunbar's 
most  remarkable  poem.  Though  grotesque,  it  also  is  free  from 

T "  Flyting "  comes  from  "  flit "  (contention)  ;  and  the  "  flyting,"  a 
metrical  scolding  match,  is  analogous  to  the  jeu  parti  of  early  Provencal 
poetry  (see  Morley,  Eng.  Writers,  VII,  140).  In  Italy,  Luigi  Pulci  and 
Matteo  Franco  had  indulged,  without  any  ill-will,  in  just  such  interchange 
of  vituperation.  In  England,  we  have  the  "  flyting "  of  Skelton  and 
Garnesche. 


U2 

satire  except  in  its  last  stanza,  which  shows  the  old  hatred  of 
the  Lowland  for  the  Highland  Scotch.  The  scene  is  in  hell.  \S 
After  a  dance  by  the  Seven  Deadly  Sins,  described  with  a 
perfect  genius  for  weird  and  grotesque  effect,  the  devil  calls 
for  a  Highland  pageant  to  crown  the  saturnalia.  He  is,  how- 
ever, so  deafened  by  the  outlandish  noise  made  by  the  High- 
landers that  he  smothers  them  with  smoke  in  the  "  deepest 
pot  of  Hell." 

Again,  Dunbar's  Dergy,  though  a  parody,  is  not  a  Satire. 
The  form,  that  of  a  parody  of  the  solemn  services  of  the 
church,  was  not  uncommon;  we  have  seen  it  in  the  horrible 
parody  of  the  Mass  celebrating  the  death  of  the  Duke  of 
Suffolk.8  In  Dunbar's  poem,  the  Trinity,  the  Virgin,  the 
Patriarchs  and  Apostles,  are  petitioned  with  parts  of  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  and  other  sacred  forms  of  the  liturgy,  to  persuade  the 
king  to  leave  the  poor  cheer  of  the  monastery  at  Stirling  for 
the  delights  of  Edinburgh.  There  is  in  this  no  hint  of  satire ; 
though  the  form  is  parodic,  the  object  is  merely  to  amuse.9 

When  we  consider,  however,  one  of  Dunbar's  most  success- 
ful efforts — the  short  religious  Satire  directed  against  the 
Franciscans,  How  Dumbar  was  desyrd  to  be  one  Freir, — we 
find  a  tone  at  once  highly  humorous  and  thoroughly  satirical. 
Here  we  reach  the  extreme  of  the  poet's  satirical  range, — a 
range  culminating  in  masterly  burlesque.  The  satirist  is  vis- 
ited during  the  night  by  one  whom  he  supposes  to  be  Saint 
Francis,  who  tries  to  persuade  him  to  become  a  monk.  Dun- 
bar  flies  in  terror  from  the  habit  which  is  offered,  and,  when 
asked  the  reason  for  his  refusal,  says  that  he  has  known  of 
few  holy  friars ;  and,  furthermore,  the  offer  comes  too  late,  for 

"  Gif  evir  my  fortoun  wes  to  be  a  freir, 
The  dait  thairof  is  past  full  mony  a  seir; 
For  into  every  lusty  toun  and  place 
Off  all  Yngland,  frome  Berwick  to  Kalice, 
I  haif  in  to  thy  habeit  maid  gud  cheir." 

He  has  travelled  as  a  friar  from  Canterbury,  over  the  ferry  at 

8  See  supra,  p.  129. 

9  Ibid.,  p.  20. 


143 

Dover,  through  Picardy,  and  knows  the  order.  At  this  rebuff, 
the  supposed  saint  vanishes  away  in  fiery  smoke:  he  was  not 
St.  Francis  at  all,  but  a  fiend  in  holy  shape.  The  poet  awakes 
wondering  if  the  devil  has  become  the  patron  of  the  Fran- 
ciscans. 

In  summing  up  the  characteristics  of  these  various  sporadic 
attempts,  we  may  note  first  of  all  their  brevity  and  their  wide 
range  of  material  and  tone;  and  secondly,  their  directness, 
vigor,  and  sincerity.  Dunbar  stands  alone  in  the  peculiar 
quality  of  his  humor,  and  though  not  a  satirist  in  any  formal 
sense,  he  is  still  entitled  to  consideration  for  his  admirable 
qualities.  His  work  embodies  less  of  the  purely  conventional, 
and  shows  greater  originality,  than  that  of  any  other  satirical 
writer  of  his  time. 

Ill 

From  the  Scottish  poet  whose  brilliant  sporadic  attempts  in 
a  satirical  vein  scarcely  entitle  him  to  serious  consideration  as 
a  Satirist,  we  turn  to  his  English  contemporary,  John  Skelton, 
who  perhaps  may  be  called  the  first  dominating  figure  in  the 
line  of  English  satirical  poets.     Skelton's  poetry  gathers  into 
itself  much  of  the  conventional  material  of  previous  English 
satire,  but  also  includes  a  great  deal  that  is  strictly  contem-, 
porary  and  individual.     In  range  of  tone  and  form,  few  satir-- 
ists  are  more  restricted  than  Skelton;  in  range  of  material, 
few  are  so  broad  and  inclusive.     ..       *4 

Since  Lydgate's  time,  Englandi^g:  known  no  great  voice 
crying  in  the  wilderness.  Ineffe^^Hps  were  Lydgate's  lugu- 
brious cries,  they  were  still  ..an  ell  Brbm  the  past  and  con- 
tinued a  time-honored  -  English  jH^^m?  For  over  half  a 
century,  through  civil  war  anos|^BB^'  of  domestic  evils, 
England,  south  of  the- Border,  hadn|J|K*'uine  poetry  of  any 
kind;  and,  as  has  been  seen,  the  satirk^" spirit  found  expres- 
sion only  in  popular  ballads  and  occasional  wails  from  the 
monasteries.  Still,  the  voice  of  tke Jfople  speaks  in  these 
attempts  and  gives  them  significance. %  At  times  these  half- 
inarticulate  cries  merge  into  one,  which  comes  from  the  lips 
of  the  man  who  speaks  with  the  autlrority  born  of  strong  pur- 


144 

pose  and  deep  conviction.  This  man  we  call  a  satirist — 
whether,  like  Dryden,  he  employs  a  consummate  literary  form ; 
or,  like  John  Skelton,  he  speaks  in  a  voice  unequal  and  harsh. 

Henry  VII  once  seated  on  the  throne  of  England,  peace 
came  again.  Conditions  grew  favorable  to  literature.  Col- 
leges and  schools  were  founded ;  the  New  Learning  came  over 
the  Alps  and  found  a  home  in  the  universities.  Grocyn,  Lin- 
acre,  and  Colet;  Erasmus,  Thomas  More,  and  a  host  of  other 
scholars,  thronged  the  church,  the  court,  the  schools.  Gross 
evils  still  afflicted  the  nation.  The  clergy  were  corrupt;  the 
people  poor  and  miserable;  the  State  was  threatened  with  a 
despotism  which  the  Tudors  were  rapidly  making  an  accom- 
plished fact.  Yet,  the  Court  favored  the  New  Thought,  and 
gave  the  new  education  a  decisive  impetus. 

One  of  the  products  of  these  newer  and  more  favorable  con- 
ditions was  Skelton.  Yet,  in  respect  to  literary  form,  Skelton, 
court-poet  and  defender  of  the  New  Learning  though  he  was,  , 
was  in  the  Renaissance  but  not  of  it.  His  point  of  view, 
his  poetical  forms,  show  no  trace  of  the  new  order.  He  is 
thoroughly  English,  and  medieval  at  that ;  using  his  classics  as 
Gower  used  them.  He  reads  Juvenal's  Satires,  yet  writes 
with  no  pretense  to  classical  form,10  and  is  no  herald  of  Wyatt ' 
and  the  Elizabethan  satirists,  save  perhaps  in  his  vigorous 
Anglicism.  Furthermore,  the  Satire  to  Skelton — as  it  was  to 
his  predecessors — is  but  an  instrument,  a  means.  It  is  not  a 
cultivated  literary  form,  remote  from  actual  life,  but  is  an 
expression  of  national  discontent.  And  the  rough  verse- form, 
fitting  the  still  more  ruaee^i  subject-matter,  has  much  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  in  its  shor^Eregular  cadences,  and  was  suited  to 
the  untuned  ear  of 'the^S^emporary  public. 

Skelton's  life,  roug^B^Dntemporarv  with  that  of  Dunbar,l 
stretches  through  th?Hlgns  of  Edward  IV,  Richard  III,  and|  | 
Henry  VII,  to  the  rn^ldle  of  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.     He 
saw  a  feudal  chivalry  replaced  by  a  modern  court,  replete  with 
those  traditional  follies  that  from  his  time  on  furnish  so  fruit- 
ful a  source  of  satire;  and  these  court  follies  he  satirized  in 
The  Bouge  of  Court.    He  saw  a  totally  corrupt  clergy,  tainted 
10  For  the  classical  Satire,  see  supra,  p.  15  f. 


145 

with  the  vices  that  had  aroused  the  ire  of  all  satirical  writers 
since  the  time  of  the  Goliards;  and  these  vices  he  attacked 
especially  in  Colyn  Cloute.  He  saw  all  power  secular  and 
religious  gathered  into  the  hands  of  one  arrogant  minister  of 
state,  and  this  minister,  Wolsey,  he  assailed  in  his  Why  Come 
Ye  not  to  Court.  These  three  elaborate  Satires  embody  al- 
most all  that  Skelton  has  to  say  about  Court,  Church,  Society, 
and  State,  and  contain  the  elements  of  all  his  minor  poems 
save  The  Tunning  of  Elynour  Rummynge.11 

Excepting  The  Bouge  of  Court,  which  is  an  example  of 
fairly  good  form,  all  of  Skelton's  elaborate  satirical  poems  are 
couched  in  an  outlandish  verse  which  he  made  so  peculiarly 
his  own  that  it  has  gained  the  epithet  Skeltonical.  The  irreg- 
ularity of  meter  that  distinguishes  this  Skeltonical  verse,  ren- 
ders it  an  admirable  vehicle  for  the  torrents  of  invective  in 
which  Skelton  loves  to  indulge.  The  normal  measure  is  iam- 
bic ;  the  syllables  average  six ;  the  number  of  accents  averages 
three ;  the  rhymes  are  double,  triple,  and  sometimes  quadruple. 
From  the  standpoint  of  invective,  some  of  its  cadences  are 
wonderfully  telling.  It  flows  in  an  irregular  current — at 
times  comparatively  smooth,  but  only  for  a  few  lines;  again, 
moving  as  roughly  as  human  ingenuity  could  well  effect.  It 
babbles,  it  roars,  it  storms,  and  jerks  its  way  along.  Its  waters 
are  muddy,  but  its  current  is  irresistible.  This  verse  with  its 
short  irregular  alliterative  lines,  perhaps  long  existing  among 
the  people,  was  now  for  the  first  time  used  as  a  literary  vehicle. 
It  served  its  purpose,  and  was  employed  for  a  few  years  by 
some  of  Skelton's  worthless  and  anonymous  imitators,  who 
aped  their  master's  faults  and  lacked|jiis  virtues ;  then  happily 
it  disappeared  forever  before  the  rriore  polished  forms  of  the 
new  poetry.  ,'  . 

Skelton's  heritage  from  the  past,  however,  does  not  consist 
merely  in  a  tremendous  breadth  of  rnaterial  and  a  popular 
verse  that  he  perhaps  adapted  to  his  own  purposes.  His  rude 
strength  and  vigor,  his  intolerance  of  wrong  and  oppression, 
his  calls  for  reform  in  Church  and  society,  his  power  of  invec- 
tive and  lack  of  sympathetic  humor,  were  native  to  the  man, 
it  is  true,  but  were  also  an  English  inheritance  from  a  long 
11  The  Poetical  Works  of  John  Skelton,  ed.  Dyce,  2  vols.,  1843. 


146 

line  of  satirical  predecessors.  He  embodies  all  the  ideals  of 
previous  English  satire;  his  work  is  the  consummation  of  all 
that  preceded  it ;  he  is  the  last  of  the  medieval  satirists,  as  he 
is  the  greatest.  This  is  what  he  gained  from  the  past.  What 
his  own  times  gave  Skelton  we  shall  see  as  we  consider  his 
greatest  Satires  more  in  detail. 

Skelton's  career  of  satirist  seems  to  have  begun  after  he 
had  reached  middle  age.  It  is  reasonable  to  suppos'e  that  his 
Court-Satire,  The  Bouge  of  Court,12  at  once  the  most  formal 
and  poetical  of  his  satirical  productions,  was  written  after 
1500,  when  he  was  at  least  forty  years  old.  The  poet  as  Uni- 
versity man  had  written  various  minor  poems  before  this 
period,  but  now  his  true  temper  began  to  find  expression.  We 
have  seen  how  the  old  chivalric  court  had  passed  away  and  the 
new  social  court  had  come  into  existence  in  both  Scotland  and 
England.  Dunbar  had  written  perhaps  the  first  true  Court- 
Satire,  and  now  in  England  Skelton  was  to  inaugurate  a  spe- 
cies destined  to  endure  for  centuries^  Himself  at  the  court, 
the  poet  found  material  about  him  in  abundance.  The  sub- 
ject-matter of  the  Bouge  of  Court  has  perfect  unity ;  its  form 
remarkable  regularity;  and  in  both  subject-matter  and  form 
it  contrasts  strangely  with  Skelton's  later  Satires.  Wolsey's 
career  had  not  yet  begun;  the  poet's  eyes  were  perhaps  not 
yet  awake  to  the  flagrant  evils  he  was  later  to  attack  so  bit- 
terly; at  any  rate,  political,  religious  and  personal  satire  are 
entirely  wanting  in  this  his  first  satirical  poem. 

The  Bouge  of  Court,  written  in  regular  and  fairly  musical 
rime  royal  stanzas,  is  in  the  form  of  an  allegory.13  The  alle- 

13  "  Bouge  "  is  the  French  bouche  (the  mouth)  ;  and  "  bouge  of  court " 
is  an  old  term  signifying  the  right  to  feed  at  the  king's  table.  "  Court 
rations  "  is  the  definition  given  in  the  New  Eng.  Diet.  As  Skelton  uses 
it,  the  term  means  "  court  favor." 

18  Cf .  the  Roman  de  la  Rose ;  the  two  are  similar  in  that  in  each  tife 
narrator  tries  to  gain  access  to  the  Lady,  and  is  helped  or  encouraged  b_. 
one  set  of  allegorical  personages,  and  hindered  or  discouraged  by  another 
set;  and,  more  particularly,  in  that  Danger  is  in  each  case  one  of  the  dis- 
couragers. In  the  Roman  de  la  Rose,  Bel-Acueil  allows  the  Lover  to 
approach  the  Rose  (n,  2886-2918)  ;  Dangier  expels  the  Lover  (n,  3013- 
3°53)«  In  The  Bouge  of  Courte,  Danger  taunts  the  author:  Desire  en- 
courages him.  (For  these  suggestions  and  references,  I  am  indebted  to  Mr. 
S.  L.  Wolff.) 


147 

gorical  personages,  Dissimulation,  Favor,  Flattery,  Debauch- 
ery, and  others,  the  vices  that  rule  the  Court,  are  enemies  of 
the  young  aspirant  to  Court  favor,  and  attempt  to  injure  him. 
The  would-be  courtier  has  to  struggle  against  these  evil  per- 
sons, and  finally  loses  the  fight. 

The  poet  sleeps  in  the  port  of  Harwich,  and  dreams  that  he 
sees  sailing  into  harbor  a  goodly  ship14  laden  with  costly  mer- 
chandise. The  ship  is  boarded  by  traders,  also  by  the  poet. 
There  is  much  confusion  until  it  is  learned  that  the  ship  is 
the  "  Bouge  of  Court,"  and  the  owner  Dame  Sauncepere ;  the 
merchandise  is  called  "  Favor,"  and  costs  dear.  The  poet 
presses  forward  to  behold  the  fair  owner,  but  is  stopped  and 
taunted  by  Danger,  her  chief  attendant.  But  Desire  encour- 
ages him  to  persevere,  and  gives  him  a  jewel  called  "  bonne 
aventure,"  telling  him  to  make  friends  with  Fortune,  who 
steers  the  ship.  Every  one  is  now  suing  for  the  friendship  of 
Fortune,  who  distributes  favor  to  them  all.  Thus  ends  the 
prologue. 

The  ship  now  puts  to  sea : 

"  The  sayle  is  vp,  Fortune  ruleth  our  helme, 
We  wante  no  wynde  to  passe  now  ouer  all ; 
Fauore  we  haue  tougher  than  ony  elme, 
That  wyll  abyde  and  neuer  from  vs  fall : 
But  vnder  hony  ofte  tyme  lyeth  bytter  gall; 
For,  as  me  thoughte,  in  our  shyppe  I  dyde  see 
Full  subtyll  persones,  in  nombre  foure  and  thre." 

These  four  and  three  disagreeable  passengers  are  hangers  on 
and  friends  of  Fortune,  named  Flattery,  Suspicion,  Disdain, 
Riot,  Dissimulation,  Harvey  Hafter,  and  Deceit — the  seven  sins 
of  the  Court.  They  are  inimical  to  the  new  courtier,  who  thus 
far  has  fared  so  well,  and  whisper  about  him  and  conspire 
against  him.  Each  draws  him  into  conversation  with  sinister 
intent.  At  last,  to  avoid  being  killed,  the  poet  is  about  to  leap 
into  the  sea,  when  he  awakes. 

"This  ship  shows  the  influence  of  Brandt's  Narreneehiff.  But   Skelton 

includes   in   his   ship  only  one  class   of   Brandt's   fools — that  of  the   false, 

flattering  courtiers.  See  Herford,  Studies  in  the  Literary  Relations  of 
England  and  Germany  in  the  Sixteenth  Century,  pp.  355-6. 


148 

This  allegorical  form,15  conventional  as  it  is,  Skelton  adapts 
to  strictly  contemporary  conditions  and  so  breathes  into  it  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  vitality.  The  story  lacks  progress,  and  is  too 
abrupt  in  its  close,  but  it  is  powerful  in  its  way  and  remarkable 
for  certain  features  new  to  English  satire — features  character- 
istic of  the  age  of  individualism  that  was  just  in  the  dawn. 
One  of  these  features  is  the  beginning  of  character  study.  It 
is  description  rather  than  genuine  characterization,  and  the 
figures  are  not  individuals,  but  types.  Yet  even  this  is  an  ad- 
vance beyond  what  has  preceded  it.  Fa  veil  (Flattery),  Sus- 
pecte,  Harvey  Hafter,  and  Subtylte,  are  indistinct,  though  their 
speeches  are  somewhat  individual ;  but  Dysdayne  and  Ryotte  are  \ 
on  the  borderland  of  characterization.  We  see  in  these  vividly 
pictured  types,  which  are  foreshadowed  by  those  in  Piers  Plow- 
mem,  how  allegory  is  at  last  passing  into  characterization.,' 
Here  we  have  a  description  of  Disdayne : 

"  Wyth  that,  as  he  departed  soo  fro  me, 
Anone  ther  mette  with  him,  as  me  thoughte, 
A  man,  but  wonderly  besene  was  he; 
He  loked  hawte,  he  sette  eche  man  at  noughte; 
His  gawdy  garment  with  scornnys  was  all  wrought; 
With  indygnacyon  lyned  was  his  hode; 
He  frowned,  as  he  wolde  swere  by  Cocke's  blode; 
He  bote  the  lyppe,  he  loked  passynge  coye; 
His  face  was  belymmed,  as  byes  had  him  stounge; 
It  was  no  tyme  with  him  to  jape  nor  toye; 
Enuye  hath  wasted  his  lyuer  and  his  lounge, 
Hatred  by  the  herte  so  had  hym  wrounge, 
That  he  loked  pale  as  asshes  to  my  syghte: 
Dysdayne,    I   wene,   this   comerous   crabes   hyghte." 

Also  foreshadowed  by  Langland16  was  the  description  of  low 
life,  introduced  in  Riot's  speech — disgusting,  but  real  and,  in  its' 
way,  effective.  Comparatively  new  to  English  satire  as  is  this 
kind  of  description,  it  shows  that  at  last  men  are  opening  their 
eyes  to  see  vividly  the  world  about  them.  The  Renaissance 
has  come,  and  with  it  have  come  realism  and  characterization. 

But  Skelton's  power  of  description  finds  yet  more  effective 

15  See  the  "  Allegorical  Satire,"  supra,  p.  26  f. 
18  See  supra,  p.  76  f. 


149 

scope  in  his  satire  on  drunken  women,  The  Tunning  of  Elynour 
Rummynge.  "  Tunning "  means  brewing.  Elynour  Rum- 
mynge  was  the  notorious  keeper  of  an  ale-house  favorably 
known  to  the  courtiers  of  Henry  VIII.  In  this  picture  of  the 
degradation  of  the  women  of  the  lower  classes,  Skelton  de- 
scribes an  evening  in  the  ale-house,  with  all  the  scurrility  and 
vulgar  talk,  the  low  morals  and  manners  typical  of  such  a  place 
in  such  an  epoch.  Its  contrast  to  The  Bouge  of  Court  is  com- 
plete. From  the  court  we  descend  to  the  hovel ;  from  the  vices 
of  the  upper  classes  we  turn  to  those  of  the  lower ;  in  place  of 
allegory  we  meet  intense  realism ;  instead  of  form,  we  find  six 
hundred  and  twenty-three  lines  of  Skeltonical  formlessness. 
Despite  its  thoroughly  disgusting  subject-matter, Elynour  Rum- 
mynge presents  a  picture  of  low  life  unapproached  in  previous 
English  satire.  Its  form  is  entirely  objective;  the  picture  is 
drawn  to  speak  for  itself,  without  comment  from  the  satirist. 
From  these  purely  social  Satires,  which  are  of  general  appli- 
cation and  are  free  from  contemporary  allusions,  we  turn  to  that 
strange  medley  of  moral,  social,  personal,  and  political  satire, 
which  Skelton  calls  Speke  Parrot.  The  form  of  this  unspeak- 
able production  is  somewhat  conventional.  Parrots  had  re- 
cently, since  the  discovery  of  America,  become  household  pets, 
and  were  supposed  to  possess  wisdom  as  well  as  the  power  of 
speech.  The  comment  on  current  affairs  is  put  into  the  mouth 
of  the  wise  bird,  and  the  speech  of  the  parrot  contains  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  character.  It  speaks  a  confused  medley  of  lan- 
guages and  dwells  on  a  confused  medley  of  themes.  The  form 
is  stanzaic,  rime  royal,  and  the  Satire  is  a  reflective  diatribe 
against  the  times  in  general.  The  poem  does  not  progress ;  its 
stanzas  might  be  indefinitely  shifted  without  either  adding  to  or 
detracting  from  its  unity  of  form.  The  subject-matter  is  divi- 
sible into  three  classes :  first,  many  of  those  vague  and  general 
censures  that  seem  to  be  of  universal  application ;  again,  more 
specific  accusations  which  especially  apply  to  this  particular 
period,  such  as, 

"  So  myche  translacion  in  to  Englyshe  confused  " ; 

"  So  myche  decay  of  monesteries  and  of  relygious  places  " ; 


150 

and,  finally,  references  that  could  apply  only  to  Cardinal  Wol- 
sey: 

"  So  bolde  a  braggyng  bocher,  and  flesshe  sold  so  dere  " ; 
"  So  mangye  a  mastyfe  curre,  the  grete  grey  houndes  pere." 

In  the  main,  the  theme  is  a  very  extraordinary  mingling  of 
general  moralizing  and  sharp  personalities.  Of  the  latter  Wol- 
sey  is  the  target,  and  this  fact  shows  a  change  in  the  poet's  atti- 
tude toward  his  former  friend.  Wolsey's  public  career  began 
in  1514;  his  rapid  rise  to  power  was  equalled  by  his  rapid 
growth  of  arrogance  and  personal  ostentation.  This  accession 
of  pride  and  pomp  must  have  alienated  many  who  were  once 
his  friends — certainly  it  alienated  Skelton,  for  his  allusions  in 
Speke  Parrot  can  point  only  to  Wolsey,  and  he  refers  repeat- 
edly to  the  arrogance  of  the  "  bragging  butcher,"  the  "  mastiff 
cur,"  who  fancies  himself  the  peer  of  the  great  greyhounds ;  the 
"  Proud  prelate  "  who  makes  such  an  assumption  of  grace,  with 
so  little  grace  within.  These  scattered  references  to  Wolsey 
in  Speke  Parrot  show  Skelton's  change  of  attitude  toward  the 
great  minister.  He  makes  no  allusions  to  Wolsey's  political 
moves ;  and  this  would  seem  to  indicate  the  later  date  of  Colyn 
Chute,  the  second  of  Skelton's  three  most  elaborate  Satires, 
which  alludes  to  Wolsey  unmistakably  and  at  greater  length. 

Colyn  Chute  is  twelve  hundred  and  seventy  lines  in  length. 
Its  verse  is  the  characteristic  Skeltonical  form  already  described. 
The  method  is  that  of  direct  attack,  sometimes  addressed  to  the 
objects  of  the  satire.  The  figure  of  Colyn  Cloute  represents  the 
laborer — both  rustic  and  urban — the  hard-headed,  not  over 
acute,  observer,  whose  righteous  wrath  has  at  last  been  excited 
by  the  abuses  he  sees  about  him : 

"  My  name  is  Colyn  Cloute, 
I  purpose  to  shake  oute 
All  my  connyng  bagge, 
Lyke  a  clerkely  hagge; 
For   though   my   ryme  be   ragged, 
Tattered  and   iagged, 
Rudely  rayne  beaten, 
Rusty  and  moughte  eaten, 
If  ye  take  well  therwith, 
It  hath  in  it  some  pyth." 


151 

He  reports  what  he  hears  against  the  Church — the  common 
complaints  in  all  men's  mouths,  and  occasionally  calls  upon 
the  ecclesiastics  to  disprove  these  slanderous  charges.  But  this 
ironical  tone  is  forgotten,  as  the  satirist  lays  aside  his  thin  dis- 
guise and  pursues  his  quarry  more  eagerly.  The  subject-mat- 
ter shows  no  unity  of  treatment,  the  form  no  progress  and  no 
organism.  The  whole  is  a  thoroughly  Skeltonical  medley; 
constantly  digressing,  yet  actually  making  every  utterance  con- 
tribute something  to  its  central  theme. 

The  subject-matter  of  Colyn  Clout e  is  purely  ecclesiastical, 
and  includes  an  attack  on  every  order  of  the  clergy.  The  pre- 
lates, their  pride,  selfishness,  lack  of  spirituality,  form  the 
principal  theme ;  but  the  friars,  too,  are  bitterly  arraigned.  All 
Skelton's  charges  are  in  substance  those  of  preceding  cen- 
turies, but  presented  in  far  more  earnest  and  effective  fashion. 
There  is  nothing  remote  or  academic  in  the  work  of  this  scholar 
who  can  write  for  the  common  man.  Here  is  a  satirist  who 
studies  the  people  and  voices  their  complaints;  a  satirist  of 
strong  moral  convictions,  yet  not  without  his  own  peculiar 
humor.  However  general  the  complaint,  it  is  very  much  alive ; 
though  without  personalities,  except  in  certain  passages  which 
point  unmistakably  to  Wolsey  as  a  type  of  prelatical  wicked- 
ness. The  partly  ironical  tone  of  Colyn  Cloute;  its  humor, 
arising  from  the  perception  of  inconsistency,  rather  bitter, 
grim,  indignant;  its  moral  earnestness,  speaking  in  every  line; 
its  rebuke  that  almost  becomes  sheer  invective — all  these  are 
the  expression  not  of  the  man  who  merely  contemplates,  but 
of  the  active  reformer. 

It  is  evident  that  Skelton  is  of  the  long  and  honorable  line 
of  satirist-reformers  that  began  with  Walter  Map.  He  would 
change  corrupt  practices,  but  he  is  no  heretic;  for,  while  a 
reformer  in  his  moral  creed,  he  yet  despises  Wycliffe,  Luther, 
and  all  their  following.  Skelton's  subject-matter,  also,  while 
so  similar  to  that  of  his  predecessors,  is  no  literary  inheritance. 
Its  whole  interest  and  value  lies  in  its  immediate  origin  in 
actual  life.  In  its  strong  statement  and  popular  expression  we 
see  a  need  and  a  prophecy  of  that  Reformation  now  at  last 


152 

about  to  come — a  reformation  extending,  however,  far  beyond 
what  Skelton  either  expected  or  desired. 

But  this  spirit  of  reform  carried  Skelton  himself  far  be- 
yond the  generalities  of  Colyn  Cloute.  It  was  not  only  ec- 
clesiastical reform  the  satirist  desired,  but  also  political.  Wol- 
sey  in  Colyn  Cloute  is  an  incident;  Wolsey  in  the  later  and 
more  virulent  Satire,  Why  Come  Ye  Not  to  Courte,  is  the 
prime  object  of  attack.  In  the  years  intervening  between  the 
composition  of  the  earlier  and  that  of  the  later  Satire,  Skel- 
ton seems  to  have  been  dividing  his  time  between  his  rectory  at 
Diss  and  the  Court  of  Henry  VIII.  During  these  years  he  saw 
the  astonishing  rise  of  Wolsey  to  greater  and  greater  power. 
In  1519,  the  man  whom  Skelton  regarded  as  the  archetype  of 
ecclesiastical  pride  and  debauchery,  was  made  the  Pope's  sole 
legate  a  later e;  in  1522,  he  was  maintaining  war  against  France 
without  the  sanction  of  Parliament,  and  was  levying  a  loan  of  a 
tenth  on  lay  subjects  and  of  a  fourth  on  the  clergy.  In  1523, 
when  Convocation  and  Parliament  met,  the  minister  demanded 
from  the  clergy  one  half  their  annual  revenue,  from  the  laity, 
four  shillings  on  the  pound,  and  actually  got  half  the  latter 
amount.  Such  exactions  were  intolerable.  Both  clergy  and 
laity  were  groaning  under  these  burdens,  while  the  great  min- 
ister was  luxuriously  domiciled  in  his  palace  of  Hampton  Court. 
Wolsey's  influence  over  the  king  seemed  unlimited.  Parliament 
did  his  bidding;  war  was  levied  at  his  command.  His  Court 
outshone  that  of  the  King:  gentleman  were  his  servants,  and 
great  nobles  waited  on  his  summons.  The  mighty  Earl  of 
Northumberland  himself  seemed  afraid  of  the  "butcher's 
dog."  Moving  among  these  conditions,  watching  this  extra- 
ordinary career,  Skelton  finally  saw  in  Wolsey  not  merely  the 
type  of  ecclesiastical  wickedness  depicted  in  Colyn  Cloute,  but 
also  the  type  of  political  tyranny  satirized  in  Why  Come  Ye 
Not  to  Courte. 

The  form  of  this  virulent  personal  invective  of  over  twelve 
hundred  lines,  is  that  of  a  direct  address  to  those  who  shun 
the  Court  on  account  of  Wolsey's  arrogance.  Wolsey  is  the 
unifying  theme  to  which,  after  numberless  digressions,  Skel- 


153 

ton  always  returns  with  some  bitter  gibe,  each  one  more  sting- 
ing than  the  last.  In  the  object  of  his  satire  Skelton  naturally 
sees  nothing  good.  Wolsey's  great  traits,  his  public  services, 
are  forgotten  or  ignored.  He  is  represented  as  utterly  de- 
praved, and  thoroughly  incompetent  for  his  exalted  offices; 
yet  master  of  both  king  and  Court.  Why  Come  Ye  Not  to 
Courte  is  perhaps  the  bitterest  personal  Satire  in  literature. 
Through  its  historical  significance,  it  evokes  profound  interest. 
Whatever  may  have  been  Skelton's  private  quarrel  with  Wol- 
sey — we  know  little  of  their  personal  relations — this  Satire 
must  have  been  largely  inspired  by  a  grievance  not  private, 
but  public.  Skelton  is  again  the  voice  of  the  people,  lifted 
against  what  they  deemed  intolerable  tyranny.  Such  a  protest, 
uttered  in  the  days  of  Wolsey's  supreme  power,  indicated  su- 
perb moral  courage.  As  it  was,  Skelton  had  to  fly  for  his  life 
to  sanctuary  in  Westminster,  and  there  he  died,  probably 
in  1529. 

Humor  in  Why  Come  Ye  Not  to  Courte  there  is  none ;  nor 
is  there  any  moralizing;  but  invective  against  Wolsey,  in- 
spired by  bitter  indignation,  violent,  even  terrible  at  times, 
always  thoroughly  alive,  there  is  in  plenty.  Indeed,  Wolsey, 
as  has  been  said,  is  the  unifying  theme.  As  Skelton  reviews 
the  foreign  and  domestic  affairs  of  the  kingdom, — dishonor 
abroad  and  discord  at  home,  religious,  political,  and  social  dis- 
sension,— he  sees  in  Wolsey  the  author  of  it  all. 

The  Scots  need  not  fear  us;  we  are  not  sufficiently  united 
among  ourselves  to  give  them  trouble.  We  are  bought  and 
sold  by  the  foreigners,  while  our  proud  and  pompous  Cardinal 
riots  at  Hampton  Court.  What  news  of  Lancashire?  of 
Cheshire?  of  the  Scotch?  of  Lord  Dacres? 

'  The  Erie  of  Northumberlande 
Dare  take  nothynge  on  hande : 
Our  barons  be  so  bolde, 
Into  a  mouse  hole  they  wolde 
Rynne  away  and  crepe, 
Lyke  a  mayny  of  shepe ; 
Dare  not  loke  out  at  dur 
For  drede  of  the  mastyue  cur, 
For  drede  of  the  bochers  dogge 
Wold  wyrry  them  lyke  an  hogge." 


154 

Where  are  the  great  nobles  of  the  realm?  Why  come  they 
not  to  court?  To  the  king's  court,  or  to  Hampton  Court? 
Why,  to  the  Cardinal's  Court  which  overshadows  that  of  the 
king!  This  shameless,  ambitious,  profligate  butcher's  dog  has 
forgotten  his  humble  origin.  His  royal  master  raised  him  from 
obscurity  to  power,  and  yet  he  repays  the  king  with  base 
ingratitude : 

"  How  be  it  the  primordyall 
Of  his  wretched  originall, 
And  his  base  progeny, 
And  his  gresy  genealogy, 
He  came  of  the  sank  royall, 
That  was  cast  out  of  a  bochers  stall." 

After  reiterated  charges  against  Wolsey, — blackening  his 
character  as  man,  statesman,  and  ecclesiastic,  branding  him  as 
the  false  adviser  of  the  king  and  the  scourge  of  the  people, — 
Skelton  ends  his  terrible  arraignment  with  an  apology.  Why 
write  satire? 

"  For  trewly  and  vnfayned, 
I  am  forcebly  constrayned, 
At  luuynals  request, 
To  wryght  of  this  glorious  gest, 
Of  this  vayne  glory ous  best, 
His  fame  to  be  encrest 
At  euery  solempne  f eest ; 
Quid  difficile  est 
Satiram  non  scribere/' 

Replete  with  contemporary  allusions  to  men  and  things, 
this  remarkable  piece  of  invective  shows  nothing  of  classical 
influence  in  style  or  form.  English  of  the  English  it  is — 
rugged,  violent,  frequently  coarse,  even  repulsive  in  its  de- 
tails, and  yet  at  the  same  time  courageous,  original,  and  ef- 
fective. 

nd  these  qualities  characterize  Skelton  as  a  satirist.  There 
is  nothing  beautiful  in  his  satire,  but  there  is  something  strong. 
After  every  possible  detraction,  he  yet  remains,  with  his  Eng- 
lish love  of  right,  hatred  of  abuses,  and  splendid  courage,  the 


155 

great  figure  of  the  pre-Elizabethan  Satire.  The  power  to  speak 
plainly,  to  hit  hard,  he  had  both  by  tradition  and  inheritance 
and  by  nature.  His  material  came  straight  from  the  world 
about  him  in  ample  measure. 

On  succeeding  satire,  Skelton's  form  had  happily  little  in- 
fluence. But  it  is  not  from  this  point  of  view  that  this  satirist 
interests  us :  he  is  the  protestant  voice  crying  aloud  in  the 
wilderness  against  the  evils  of  his  time;  the  herald  of  refor- 
mation and  a  new  order.  It  was  many  a  year  before  the  line 
of  English  satirists  could  boast  so  effective  and  imposing  a 
figure  as  that  of  John  Skelton. 

IV 

Contemporary  with  Dunbar  and  Skelton  lived  the  learned 
and  pious  clergyman  Alexander  Barclay — a  humanist  who, 
despite  his  mastery  of  the  New  Learning  of  the  Renaissance, 
used  in  his  satire  a  tradition  distinctly  medieval.  Translation 
though  it  was,  Barclay's  The  Ship  of  Fools  was  so  well 
adapted  to  English  conditions  and  became  so  thoroughly  iden- 
tified with  English  literature,  that  it  may  well  be  considered  a 
link  in  the  chain  of  the  English  Satire. 

Sebastian  Brandt,  German  scholar  and  moralist,  produced 
in  1494  that  voluminous  compendium  of  medieval  ethics  which 
he  called  the  Narrenschiff.  This  poem  takes  its  name  from  a 
ship  carrying  all  the  fools  of  earth,  of  every  manner  and 
order,  and  forms  a  vast  panorama  of  society,  picturing  all 
sorts  and  conditions  of  men  and  drawing  from  their  foolish 
lives  grave  lessons  of  wholesome  counsel.  The  Narrenschiff 
met  with  universal  popularity,  and  brought  to  Brandt  enduring 
fame. 

This  great  work  made  a  powerful  appeal  to  a  nature  very 
similar  to  Brandt's — that  of  Alexander  Barclay,  probably 
Scotch  by  birth  but  English  by  adoption.  Barclay,  scholar 
and  moralist,  afterwards  rector  of  St.  Mary  Ottery,  was 
twenty  years  old  when  the  Narrenschiff  appeared.  The  young 
scholar  assimilated  the  German  work,  perhaps  largely  through 
a  Latin  translation,  found  it  wholesome  for  doctrine,  universal 
in  its  application  and  therefore  as  well  adapted  to  the  English 


156 

as  to  the  Germans;  and  in   1508  gave  it  forth  to  his  own 
people  in  his  famous  translation  The  Ship  of  Fools.17 

On  first  opening  The  Ship  of  Fools  we  are  impressed  with 
its  enormous  length  of  fourteen  thousand  lines ;  then  with  its 
multitude  of  emblematic  pictures.  What  is  this  quaint  pon- 
derous work  that  has  given  both  author  and  translator  literary 
immortality,  and  what  is  its  position  in  the  history  of  the 
English  Satire  ? 18 

First  of  all,  Barclay's  variations  from  his  original  are  not 
of  great  importance.  He  omits  practically  nothing,  while  his 
additions  are,  for  our  present  purpose,  insignificant.  A  few 
personalities,  relating  either  to  himself  or  to  those  whom  he 
wished  to  censure;  a  few  patriotic  passages;  an  attack  on 
French  fashions;  a  diatribe  against  false  religions — these  are 
additions  of  small  bulk  and  importance,  and  in  no  whit  vitally 
alter  the  character  of  the  original.  Yet,  as  concerns  the  his- 
tory of  English  satire,  Barclay  is  an  original  satirist,  and  his 
Ship  of  Fools  native  to  the  English  soil.  This  book  continued 
many  of  the  traditions  of  previous  satire  in  England;  in  it 
English  society  at  large  found  itself  mirrored ;  subsequent  Eng-  ,/ 
lish  satire  indirectly  owed  something  to  its  influence.  Hence, 
through  this  discussion,  Barclay's  name  will  be  used  to  repre- 
sent the  author,  whether  the  touch  be  that  of  the  German  or 
of  the  English  writer. 

So  much  for  the  relation  of  the  Ship  of  Fools  to  the  Narren- 
schiff.  Barclay's  purpose  in  writing  is  stated  in  his  prose 
argument,  where  he  tells  us  that  "  the  present  book  might 
well  have  been  called  the  Satyr — that  is  '  the  reprehension  of 
foolishness,'  "  and  goes  on  to  say  that,  as  the  old  satirical  poets 
in  divers  poesies  reproved  the  sins  and  the  ills  of  the  people 
at  that  time  living,  so  he  essays  to  follow  in  their  illustrious 
footsteps  and  do  his  duty  by  the  present  age.  This  is  well; 
and,  furthermore,  according  to  the  prologue  furnished  by 
Locher, 

"  Sothely  he  hathe  taken  vpon  hym  the  translacion  of  this 

17  The  Ship  of  Fools,  ed.  Jamieson,  2  vols.,  Edinburgh,  1874. 

18  See  Alden,  pp.  15-21,  for  a  brief  but  scholarly  treatment  of  the  relation 
of  The  Ship  of  Fools  to  the  Classical  Satire. 


157 

present  Boke  neyther  for  hope  of  rewarde  nor  laude  of  man : 
but  onely  for  the  holsome  instruction  commodyte  and  Doctryne 
of  wysdome,  and  to  dense  the  vanyte  and  madnes  of  folysshe 
people  of  whom  ouer  great  nombre  is  in  the  Royalme  of 
Englonde." 

A  fitting  introduction  to  The  Ship  of  Fools  \  Permeated 
with  "  wholesome  instruction  "  and  "  doctrine  of  wisdom  "  as 
it  is,  tedious,  often  intolerable  though  it  be,  never  does  it 
swerve  from  its  moral  purpose  either  for  "  hope  of  reward  or 
laud  of  man."  It  is  a  moral  treatise,  a  system  of  ethics,  a 
vast  didactic  poem  written  on  a  characteristic  medieval  plan. 
Humor  plays  no  part  in  such  a  scheme;  neither  does  acute 
observation,  nor  profound  knowledge  of  human  nature.  These 
latter  qualities  are  not  compatible  with  that  utter  lack  of  moral 
perspective  shown  in  placing  on  the  same  moral  plane,  side  by 
side,  as  equal  sinners,  the  comparatively  innocent  geographer 
whose  only  fault  is  an  untoward  disposition  to  visit  foreign 
lands,  and  the  criminal  who  has  been  guilty  of  arson  or  mur- 
der. In  fact,  Barclay's  disposition  is  to  rebuke  the  fool  more 
sharply  than  the  criminal. 

Such  is  the  moral  character  of  the  book.  Its  literary 
character  is  marked  by  an  utter  absence  of  poetic  or  imagina- 
tive qualities.  A  sermon  in  verse,  with  illustrations;  a  twice- 
told  tale;  a  vast  compilation  of  ancient  commonplaces,  now 
brought  together  into  something  approaching  unity;  it  is, 
withal,  a  book.  Some  of  its  qualities  are  even  transitional  and 
prophetic :  not  wholly  of  the  old  time,  they  dimly  foreshadow 
the  Renaissance  of  newer  and  more  vital  things  in  literature. 

Yet  this  great  sermon  mightily  pleased  the  readers  of  its 
day,  became  the  popular  work  of  its  period,  and  bred  a  host 
of  little  imitations.  To  a  modern  mind  its  popularity  amply 
demonstrates  the  contemporary  lack  of  good  reading  matter. 
Maybe  its  precise  arrangement  and  orderly  classification 
pleased  the  early  sixteenth  century  reader,  accustomed  to 
scholastic  tradition;  perhaps  its  clear  commonplaces  made  it 
easy  reading;  possibly,  its  realistic,  illustrative  types  gave  it 
a  novel  character ;  but  most  probably  its  instant  and  prodigious 


158 

popularity  was  won  by  its  long  series  of  really  remarkable 
emblematic  wood-cuts,  which  constitute  the  chief  interest  of 
the  book  for  the  latter-day  reader,  and  which  are  still  striking 
and  extremely  effective.  For  the  sake  of  the  interesting  pic- 
tures, the  reader  of  that  day  perhaps  endured  the  sermonic 
comment — entirely  reversing  the  good  Barclay's  intention,  but 
probably  effecting  his  purpose  quite  as  well. 

In  form,  the  Ship  of  Fools  is  a  didactic  poem  of  about  two 
thousand  rime  royal  stanzas,  the  whole  divided  into  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty-three  sections.  All  the  follies  of  human 
society  are  passed  in  review — for  folly  in  this  system  of  ethics 
includes  both  vice  and  crime.  The  criminal  is  the  fool  gone 
mad.  A  great  ship  is  about  to  sail  to  some  distant  port  and 
into  this  ship  are  to  be  gathered  all  the  fools  of  the  world, 
from  the  fool  who  fills  his  shelves  with  books  he  cannot  read 
to  the  fool  who  does  violence  to  his  neighbor.  Every  trade, 
every  profession,  every  order  of  society,  furnishes  its  quota. 
Folly  is  of  one  hundred  and  ten  distinct  varieties — an  advance 
beyond  Lydgate,  who  found  only  "  three-score  and  three,"  as 
we  may  recall.  Each  folly  receives  its  share  of  attention,  is 
catalogued,  rebuked,  and  passed  on.  Brandt  and  Barclay  do 
not  indulge  in  burlesque,  or  show  character  in  action.  Their 
method  is  almost  wholly  descriptive ;  their  form  that  of  direct 
address  on  the  part  of  the  satirist. 

Aside  from  its  length,  perhaps  nothing  in  this  vast  poem  is 
so  striking  as  its  lack  of  any  progress  or  climax.  There  is 
here  no  idea  of  structure,  no  organic  whole.  Not  only  may 
the  order  of  the  Follies  be  indefinitely  varied  without  doing 
violence  to  the  form,  but  even  the  stanzas  of  any  one  section 
may  be  shifted  at  random  without  affecting  the  sense.  To- 
gether with  this  lack  of  organic  unity  goes  a  tedious  diffuse- 
ness  of  style.  Barclay  proses  interminably.  Ten  stanzas 
might  well  be  boiled  down  into  one  with  a  gain  in  interest  and 
in  solidity  of  structure.  The  style  is  remarkably  uniform, 
rarely  varying  from  an  even  tenor  of  mediocrity — though  even 
The  Ship  of  Fools  has  its  "  purple  patches." 

Despite  the  allusions  to  the  ship  in  Barclay's  two  prologues 


159 

— one  verse,  the  other  prose — the  poem  is  in  no  sense  a  narra- 
tive. Indeed,  when  we  reach  the  body  of  the  poem,  we  find 
the  initial  idea  entirely  forgotten,  and  no  further  allusion  to 
a  ship  or  a  voyage  is  forthcoming.  The  ship  has  presumably 
long  since  begun  its  voyage,  and  the  moralist  now  confines  our 
attention  to  a  description  of  the  passengers. 

What  a  motley  company  is  this  of  the  Fools  of  the  World ! 
The  Fool  of  Books,  The  Evil  Men  of  Law  and  Judgment,  The 
Fool  of  Prodigality,  the  Fool  of  Avarice,  Fools  of  New  Fash- 
ions in  Dress,  the  Old  Fool,  the  Negligent  Father,  The  Fool 
of  Strife,  The  Tale-Bearer,  The  Fool  of  Broken  Friendships, 
The  Improvident  Fool,  The  Fool  of  Disordered  Love,  The 
Drunken  Fool,  The  Unprofitably  Rich,  The  Blasphemous  Fool, 
The  Envious  Fool,  The  Fool  who  marries  an  old  woman  for 
her  money,  The  Impatient  Fool,  The  Sensual  Fool,  The  Cler- 
ical Fool,  The  Fool  of  Geography,  The  Fool  of  Astrology — but 
the  list  is  endless  and  the  range  well-nigh  universal.  The 
great  range  and  complexity  of  this  material  make  it  difficult 
to  classify.  Barclay  does  not  confine  himself  to  the  reprehen- 
sion of  abstract  follies  as  did  Lydgate;  nor  does  he  merely 
reprimand  each  class  of  society  in  turn  as  illustrating  these 
follies.  His  method  is  almost  as  varied  as  his  material.  So- 
cial, religious,  even  some  personal  satire,  make  up  this  gigantic 
pot-pourri. 

Barclay's  most  distinct  gain  over  the  majority  of  his 
predecessors  consists  in  his  method  of  illustrating  an  abstract 
folly  by  the  life  of  an  individual.  This  is  his  characteristic 
method,  and  consists  in  illustrating  the  folly  of  envy,  say,  by 
a  realistic  description  of  an  envious  man.  Here  is  a  step 
toward  characterization,  though  the  result  is,  of  course,  at 
best  a  type,  and  often  a  very  wooden  type.  Still,  this  method 
renders  the  satire  on  abstract  follies  a  hundred  fold  more 
effective  than  was  the  method  of  the  medieval  satirist,  who, 
like  Barclay,  took  up  folly  after  folly,  but  inveighed  against 
them  in  a  fashion  entirely  abstract. 

This,  however,  while  perhaps  Barclay's  most  characteristic, 
is  not  his  only  method.  Here  and  there  in  The  Ship  of  Fools, 
we  find  the  old  medieval  satire  on  social  classes;  as  in  the 


ICO 

attack  on  "  Evil  Counsellors,  Judges  and  Men  of  Law  "  (vol. 
I,  p.  24)  ;  and  a  modification  of  this  method  in  "  The  Extor- 
tion of  Knights,  Great  Officers,  Men  of  War,  Scribes  and 
Practicers  of  the  Law  "  (vol.  2,  p.  80) — where  one  particular 
vice  is  illustrated  not  by  a  single  individual,  but  by  a  whole 
class — thus  uniting  the  two  methods  in  one  portrayal. 

Neither  does  Barclay  altogether  abandon  the  old  way  of 
attacking  vices  entirely  in  the  abstract,  for  he  arraigns  Avar- 
ice, Covetousness,  and  Prodigality  without  illustrative  charac- 
terization or  comment  (vol.  i,  p.  29).  Apart  from  the  medi- 
eval Satire  on  social  classes,  Barclay  indulges  in  what  may  be 
called  a  classification  by  moral  orders,  when  he  inveighs 
against  "Card-Players  and  Dicers"  (vol.  2,  p.  69)  ;  though, 
to  be  sure,  such  is  but  a  modification  of  the  method  by  which 
the  satirist  attacks  a  particular  vice  as  embodied  in  an  indi- 
vidual. Again,  in  at  least  two  instances,  he  inveighs  against 
a  folly  and  confines  its  exhibition  not  to  an  individual,  but  to 
one  class — the  clergy.  In  the  "  Clattering  and  Babbling  of 
Clergy  in  the  Choir,"  he  says  of  the  gossiping  priest : 

"  He  rennyth  about  lyke  to  a  pursuyuant 
With  his  whyte  staffe  mouynge  from  syde  to  syde 
Where  he  is  lenynge  talys  ar  nat  skant 
But  in  one  place  nat  longe  doth  he  abyde 
So  he  and  other  them  selfe  so  lewdly  gyde 
Without  deuocian,  by  theyr  lewd  neglygence 
That  no  thynge  can  bynde  theyr  tunges  to  sylence."19 

Such  is  the  social  satire  of  The  Ship  of  Fools.  Its  religious 
satire  is  of  the  same  order  and  bound  up  with  the  former 
variety.  Against  plurality  of  church  livings  and  begging  Bar- 
clay grows  stern,  but  otherwise  he  handles  the  clergy  gently. 
Of  personal  satire  we  find  very  little,  for  Barclay  was  not  the 
man  to  single  out  an  individual  for  chastisement;  and  this 
makes  his  bitter  yet  humorous  reference  of  his  neighbor 
"  Mansell  of  Ottery  " 20  all  the  more  striking. 

Barclay's  remedy  for  all  these  follies  which  permeate  so- 

19  The  Ship  of  Fools,  vol.  2,  p.   155. 

20  And  to  eight  of  his  neighbors  who  belong  to  the  class  of  "  fools  who 
will  not  learn  "  ;  see  vol.  2,  p.  82. 


161 

ciety  is,  like  that  proposed  by.  Langland,  no  great  iconoclastic 
reform,  no  revolution,  no  violent  change  in  the  old  order, 
simply  more  religion.  Let  men  do  right:  this  will  purify 
society  and  rid  the  world  of  folly,  which  is  another  name  for 
madness.  This  theory  is  set  forth  throughout  the  great 
length  of  Barclay's  treatise;  through  all  its  one  hundred  and 
twenty-three  sections,  each  a  little  "  Satire,"  or  rather,  if  you 
will,  each  a  little  ethical  treatise  on  a  particular  folly,  vice,  or 
crime,  in  which  the  worthy  philosopher  inculcates  his  moral 
with  threats  of  hell  and  hopes  of  paradise. 

Barclay  lived  in  interesting  times,  but  contemporary  affairs 
find  little  echo  in  his  Ship  of  Fools.  The  material  is  mainly 
an  aftermath  from  the  past.  It  gives  one  the  impression  of 
a  bookish  origin ;  it  is  the  work  of  a  man  who  elaborated  a 
system  of  ethics  in  his  study,  and  not  from  first-hand  obser- 
vation of  mankind.  Yet  with  all  of  this,  here  and  there  come 
flashes  of  insight  into  actual  contemporary  life,  an  approach 
toward  the  picturing  of  social  conditions.  Even  sketches  of 
low-life  are  not  wanting.  The  conduct  of  servants  when  es- 
caped from  their  master's  authority,  is  in  itself  something  new, 
but  forms  one  of  the  series  of  the  genre  pictures  that  are 
scattered  here  and  there  in  English  satire  from  the  time  of 
Langland : 

"  Whan  mayster  and  maystres  in  bed  ar  to  rest 
The  bordes  ar  spred,  the  dores  open  echone 
Than  farys  the  Coke  and  Butteler  of  the  best 
Other  both  togyther,  or  eche  of  theme  alone 
With  wyne  and  ale  tyll  all  the  best  be  gone 
By  galons  and  potels  they  spende  without  care 
'That  whiche  theyr  lorde  for  his  owne  mouth  dyd  spare." 

A  step  towards  characterization  and  observation  of  life  is  taken 
in  "  The  Card  Players  and  Dicers  "  (Vol.  2,  p.  69)  ;  and  again 
in  the  diatribe  against  Beggars,  which  is  to  be  imitated  in  later 
satire  :21 

"  Such  yonge  laddys  as  lusty  ar  of  age 
Myghty  and  stronge,  and  wymen  in  lyke  wyse 
Wanton  and  yonge  and  lusty  of  cowrage 

81  See  infra,  p.  117  f. 


162 

Gyueth  them  selfe  vtterly  to  thus  gyse 
The  cause  is  that  they  labour  do  despyse 
For  theyr  mynde  is  in  ydylnes  to  be  styll 
Or  els  in  vyce  to  wander  at  theyr  wyll." 

Against  Geographers  and  Astrologers  Barclay  is  especially 
severe ;  and  this  material,  comparatively  new  to  English  satire, 
except  for  the  astrological  satire  in  Chaucer,  is  also  largely 
contemporary.  The  new  mania  for  exploration,  so  distaste- 
ful to  the  home-staying  Brandt,  was  at  least  as  much  English 
as  German,  and  this  satire  against  "the  foolish  description 
and  inquisition  of  divers  countries  and  regions "  comes 
strangely  from  the  pen  of  an  Englishman! 

Barclay's  verse,  always  unimaginative  and  prosaic,  suffering, 
in  the  main,  from  a  deadly  mediocrity,  rises  in  the  stanzas 
against  Astrology  and  Geographers,  into  a  style  at  least  strong 
and  effective,  if  not  poetical ;  e.  g., 

"  Some  gaze  vpon  wandrynge  of  the  mone 
Another  deuysyth  the  cours  of  Phebus  clere 
Gasynge  on  the  Sonne  at  mornynge  nyght  or  none 
And  by  other  planetis  shewyth  what  doth  apere 
Howe  some  of  them  whan  they  do  gyde  the  yere 
Engendreth  plenty  pleasour  myrth  and   ioy 
And  howe  some  other  doth  man  and  beste  destroy." 

But  despite  these  passages  of  some  beauty  and  power,  Bar- 
clay, in  his  style  and  material,  rather  harks  back  to  medievalism. 
For  instance,  he  is  thoroughly  medieval  in  his  use  of  the 
classics.  In  this  respect  he  is,  like  Skelton,  in  the  Renaissance, 
but  not  of  it.  Classical  writers  furnish  him  with  endless 
illustrations  and  quotations,  but  he  knows  very  little  of  the 
breadth  of  classical  humanity,  and  of  classical  method  and  form, 
nothing  at  all.  Classical  satire  does  indeed  show  its  influence 
in  Barclay's  method  of  picturing  a  folly  illustrated  in  an  indi- 
vidual, thus  producing  a  type.  Horace  did  this,  and  Juvenal. 
But  their  types  are  more  elaborate,  have  more  vitality,  are  char- 
acterizations rather  than  descriptions.  Barclay  seems  to  build 
his  type  on  one  folly :  the  folly  is  uppermost,  not  the  individual. 
This  is  largely  the  method  of  Theophrastus  and  the  English 


163 

"character"  writers  of  the  seventeenth  century.  The  class- 
ical satirists  did  not  thus  work  from  without  inward,  but  seemed 
to  select  an  individual  as  an  illustration  of  a  folly,  rather  than 
to  construct  a  type  upon  a  folly  as  its  foundation. 

Glimpses  of  characterization  had  for  centuries  existed  in 
English  satire,  but  they  were  never  uppermost,  and  had  been 
at  length  obscured,  perhaps  by  the  ecclesiastical  influence  that 
created  the  earlier  and  typical  Morality  play,  which  embodied 
a  system  of  abstractions  in  itself  antipodal  to  the  picturing 
of  actual  life.  From  this  deadening  medievalism  English  satire 
at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  was  just  emerging. 
The  emancipation  was  greatly  hastened  by  the  influence  of  Bar- 
clay's German  importation.  Brandt,  a  classical  scholar,  was  in- 
fluenced by  classical  method  to  the  extent  already  mentioned — 
a  half-way  achievement,  but  a  triumph  in  its  way,  an  advance 
beyond  the  medieval.  The  change  was  needed  in  England. 
Barclay  felt  the  thrill  imparted  by  the  Renaissance,  attempted 
the  closer  observation,  applied  himself  to  the  picturing  of  con- 
temporary life.  But  the  old  order  imposes  itself  upon  the  class- 
icist, and  the  result  is  a  queer  and  interesting  medley  of  tones 
and  methods.  Barclay's  psychology  and  ethics  are  medieval, 
showing  that  exact  classification,  that  perfect  system,  which 
takes  no  thought  of  the  individual ; — apart  from  life,  remote, 
cold,  dead.  All  this  was  upon  him,  and  he  could  not  throw 
off  the  cumbersome  garment;  hence  the  one  hundred  and  ten 
varieties  of  follies  in  The  Ship  of  Fools.  But  just  here  comes 
an  advance  in  method,  gained  by  Brandt  from  the  classics, 
doubtless,  but  still,  in  a  small  desultory  way,  something  of  an 
inheritance  in  English  Satire.  This  new  method — that  of  pre- 
senting a  vice  or  folly  as  illustrated  by  an  individual — has  been 
referred  to.  In  this  consists  the  chief  interest  of  The  Ship  of 
Fools  to  the  student  of  English  literature. 

This  method  is  to  have  its  influence.  A  host  of  minor  imita- 
tions, such  as  Cocke  Lorell  and  his  brethren,  for  a  generation 
or  more,  are  to  adapt  and  elaborate  each  his  own  peculiar 
feature  of  the  great  work.  The  Ship  of  Fools  is  too  large 
in  scope  to  be  effective.  It  is  universal  in  its  way,  but  this 
universality  is  not  of  a  high  creative  type;  what  it  gains  in 


164 

universality  it  loses  in  strength  and  virility.  But  its  imitators 
did  not  so  err.  They  elaborated  one  feature  of  their  original, 
lost  in  universality,  but  gained  in  force. 

Glancing  for  a  moment,  in  conclusion,  from  Barclay's  influ- 
ence to  his  sources,  we  observe  again  that  the  "  fool  satire  " 
goes  back  to  Nigellus  Wireker ;  more  directly,  however,  to 
Lydgate,  and  that  Barclay's  gain  over  Lydgate  is  tremendous. 
Yet  Barclay's  work  is,  of  course,  of  German  origin.  It  is 
doubtful  if  an  Englishman  would  ever  have  originated  this 
ponderous  ethical  treatise.  For  The  Ship  of  Fools  is  in  fact 
no  ideal  Satire,  lacking  in  humor  as  it  is  and  with  so  large 
a  constructive  element.  However,  German  though  it  may  be, 
it  fits  into  the  history  of  English  satire  in  a  very  remarkable 
fashion. 

From  previous  English  satire,  Barclay,  like  Skelton,  received 
much : — but,  as  we  have  seen,  Barclay  and  Skelton,  though  con- 
temporaries, had  little  in  common  in  their  literary  methods. 
Skelton  is  the  voice  of  the  people  militant;  Barclay  is  the 
student,  contemplative.  Yet  each  possesses  a  certain  English 
heritage.  Skelton's  we  have  already  considered.  Barclay's 
is  an  unswerving  and  permeating — even  obstrusive — moral  pur- 
pose, a  serious,  didactic  tone,  a  manner  capable  of  forceful 
thrusts. 

Apart  from  its  direct  imitations,  the  influence  of  The  Ship 
of  Fools  over  subsequent  satirical  literature  is  not  so  apparent. 
Although  this  influence  can  be  traced  in  other  literary  genres, 
neither  the  renascence  of  the  classical  Satire,  which  Wyatt  in- 
augurated, nor  any  subsequent  satire  of  the  classical  type,  owed 
anything  to  Barclay.  It  is  safe  to  say,  however,  that  The  Ship 
of  Fools  at  least  indirectly  fostered  the  manifestation  of  the 
satirist's  personality,  realistic  method,  contemporary  por- 
traiture; however  remote,  tedious,  ineffective,  academic,  Bar- 
clay's style  and  method  may  seem  in  comparison  with  those  of 
his  successors. 

V 

But  Barclay's  literary  activity  did  not  cease  with  the  pub- 
lication of  The  Ship  of  Fools.  Mantuan,  the  Italian  humanist 
and  Latin  poet,  had  imitated  the  eclogues  of  Virgil  in  a  series 


165 

of  moralizing,  didactic  poems,  pseudo-pastoral,  which  he 
termed  "  satirical."  In  turn,  Barclay  wrote,  perhaps  about 
1514,  five  eclogues,22  two  of  which  were  imitated,  in  form  and 
subject-matter,  from  those  of  Mantuan;  while  three  were  para- 
phrases of  the  work  of  Aeneas  Silvius.  These  five  "  eclogues  " 
are  pastoral  dialogues,  which  vary  in  length  from  eight  hun- 
dred and  fifty  to  over  thirteen  hundred  lines,  and  are  written 
in  pentameter  couplets  of  fair  regularity.  They  have  in  truth 
very  little  that  is  bucolic  about  them,  and  not  much  local  color. 
Innocent  of  humor,  destructive  in  tone,  often  vituperative  in 
style,  each  has  far  more  right  to  the  designation  of  "  Satire  " 
than  has  The  Ship  of  Fools,  though  all  are  in  fact  rather  di- 
dactic than  satirical. 

Barclay's  first  three  eclogues  are  adaptations — with  large 
additions — from  the  Miseriae  Curialium  of  ^Eneas  Silvius, 
Pope  Pius  II.  At  great  length,  with  wonderful  and  tedious 
minuteness,  they  describe  the  life  of  the  courtier;  and,  al- 
lowing for  exaggeration,  present  some  interesting  pictures  of 
contemporary  life  at  court.  This  court-satire  connects  itself, 
in  its  distinctive  tone,  with  other  court  satire  of  this  new 
period.  Such  criticism  of  court-life  could  have  had  no  sig- 
nificance for  the  English  reader  of  a  former  generation;  and 
even  now,  its  foreign  source  and  its  obvious  imitation — almost 
translation — of  Italian  models,  rather  vitiate  any  attempt  to 
connect  it  with  previous  or  contemporary  English  satire. 

In  his  Fourth  Eclogue,  Barclay,  with  somewhat  greater 
originality,  indulges  in  literary  satire,  and  bewails  the  neglect 
of  poetry.  Minalcas,  the  shepherd-poet,  in  appealing  for  aid 
to  Codrus,  the  rich  shepherd,  declares  that  his  desires  are 
moderate  and  his  wants  but  few : 

"  I  aske  no  palace,  nor  lodging  curious, 
No  bed  of  state,  of  rayment  sumptuous. 

Grant  me  a  living  sufficient  and  small, 
And  voyd  of  troubles,  I  aske  no  more  at  all ; 
But  with  that  little  I  hold  myself  content, 

22  Spenser  Soc.  Pub.,  1885 ;  for  fifth  eclogue  and  parts  of  four  others,  see 
also  Percy  Soc.  Pub.,  vol.  22,  ed.  Fairholt. 


166 

If  sauce  of  sorowe  my  minde  not  torment; 

Of  the  court  of  Rome,  forsooth,  I  have  heard  tell, 

With  forked  cappes  it  folly  is  to  mell." 

The  Fifth  Eclogue,  The  Cytezen  and  U  plondyshman,  or 
Amintas  and  Faustus,  is  an  imitation  from  Mantuan.  Two 
shepherds  debate  concerning  the  relative  desirability  of  town 
and  country  life.  Faustus  utters  a  lengthy  and  detailed  in- 
dictment against  the  traditional  sins  of  the  city,  in  a  tone  severe 
enough,  but  in  a  style  general,  commonplace,  totally  without 
allusion  of  any  kind,  without  humor,  severe,  didactic,  and 
thoroughly  medieval.  In  its  attack  on  hucksters  and  coster- 
mongers,  presumptuous  fools  who  essay  theological  argument, 
flattering  friars,  apothecaries,  whose  craft  "  — is  all  frauds 
and  gyle  full  policy," —  in  all  this  the  eclogue  continues  the 
medieval  tradition  of  the  class-satire.  Of  this  class-satire,  the 
attack  on  Alchemists  and  Magicians  is  by  far  the  best,  and 
reminds  us  forcibly  of  the  Astronomer  section  in  the  Ship  of 
Fools: 

"  As  alkemystys,  wenynge  by  polecy 
Nature  to  alter,  and  coyne  to  multyply; 
Some  wasshe  rude  metall  with  lycours  manyfolde 
Of  herbes,  weynge  to  turn  it  into  golde; 
All  pale  and  smoky  by  suche  contynuall, 
And  after  labour  they  lose  theyr  lyfe  and  all ! 
Another  sorte  is  to  this  not  moche  unlyke, 
Whiche  spende  theyr  tymes  in  wretched  art  magyke, 
Therby  supposynge  some  treasore  to  have  founde, 
Whiche  many  yeres  is  hydde  within  the  grounde !  " 

After  their  publication  in  1540,  these  satirical  eclogues  of 
Barclay's,  though  foreign  in  their  origin  and  without  precedent 
in  English  literature,  had  yet  a  perceptible  influence  over  Eliza- 
bethan pastoral  poets.  In  their  satirical  tone,  often  approach- 
ing invective,  they  bear  fruit  in  the  eclogues  of  Googe,  in  the 
Shepherd's  Calendar  of  Spenser,  and  in  the  sporadic  attempts 
of  other  Elizabethans. 

So  far  it  has  seemed  advisable,  owing  to  the  comparative 
scarcity  of  any  one  variety  of  satire  in  any  one  period,  to 


167 

adopt  for  our  material  the  chronological  rather  than  the  topical 
treatment.  Between  1520  and  1550,  however,  the  bulk  of  the 
social  satire,  its  largely  anonymous  character,  together  with  the 
fact  that  it  was  all  produced  within  a  short  period,  render  the 
topical  treatment  indispensable.  The  same  is  true  of  the 
religious  satire  of  this  era — the  satire  of  the  Reformation; 
though  in  this  variety  we  meet  with  some  celebrated  names, 
notably  that  of  Sir  David  Lyndsay. 


CHAPTER   VI 
SOCIAL   SATIRE,    1520-1550;    SATIRE   OF  THE   REFORMATION 

Social  changes  under  Henry  VIII. — Social  satire. — Nowadays. — Manner 
of  the  World  Nowadays. — Treatise  of  this  Gallant. — The  Ruin  of  a  Realm. 
— Dissolution  of  the  monasteries. — "  The  Pilgrimage  of  Grace." — An  Ex- 
hortation to  the  Nobles  and  Commons  of  the  North. — Social  satire  under 
Edward  VI.— Vox  Populi,  Vox  Dei.— The  Satire  on  Woman.— The  Proud 
Wives  Pater  Noster. — The  Satire  on  Rogues. — Cocke  Lorells  Bote. — The 
Hye  Way  to  the  Spyttell  Hous. — Other  Satires  on  Fools  and  on  Rogues. — 
Relation  of  such  satire  to  that  of  the  later  Moralities. — The  Satire  of  the 
Reformation. — Its  varieties. — Its  general  lack  of  literary  merit. — Tyndale's 
New  Testament.— The  Replycacion.—Rede  Me  and  Be  Not  Wrothe.—Its 
form,  tone,  and  subject-matter. — Its  value  as  a  Satire. — A  Proper  Dialogue. 
— Doctor  Double  Ale. — The  Image  of  Hypocrisy. — John  Bon  and  Mast 
Person. — The  Conservative  side. — Its  Satires. — A  Poor  Help. — Growth  of 
the  Reformation  under  Edward  VI. — A  Ballad  of  Luther,  the  Pope,  etc. — 
Little  John  Nobody. — General  character  of  the  Reformation  Satire. 


There  was  ample  material  for  social  satire  during  the  reign 
of  Henry  VIII  and  of  his  son  and  successor,  Edward  VI.  It 
was  a  period  of  social,  political,  and  religious  change,  a  period 
crowded  with  momentous  events. 

The  Reformation;  the  decay  of  the  old  nobility;  political 
follies  and  crimes,  such  as  the  systematic  debasement  of  the 
currency;  the  dissolution  of  the  monasteries,  casting  eighty 
thousand  people  adrift  without  means  of  subsistence — all  this 
and  more  furnished  material  for  the  social  satirists,  and  it  is 
not  strange  that  the  social  satire  of  the  period  echoes  with  com- 
plaints and  with  calls  for  reform. 

The  old  Norman  nobility  were  decaying,  their  castles  fall- 
ing into  neglect.  The  King's  extravagance,  which  they  were 
forced  to  emulate,  was  to  them  a  source  of  ruin.  This  degra- 
dation of  the  old  nobility  was  the  very  object  at  which  King 
Henry  aimed.  He  filled  their  places  with  new  men — "  up- 
starts "  the  old  nobility  called  them.  Many  of  the  clergy, 
carried  away  by  the  commercial  spirit  of  the  time,  became  mer- 

168 


169 

chants,  and  used  even  the  very  holy  places  of  the  church,  so 
it  was  claimed,  for  markets  of  barter  and  sale.  It  was  also 
said  that  in  London  itself,  aliens  were  outdoing  English  mer- 
chants at  their  own  business,  and  French  wares  were  out- 
selling English  products.  Upon  the  dissolution  of  the  monas- 
teries, vast  tracts  of  land  passed  into  the  hands  of  a  new  com- 
mercial class,  the  sheep-farmers,  and  rents  enormously  in- 
creased. The  monks  had,  in  the  main,  been  easy  landlords,  but 
the  new  owners,  bent  only  upon  money-making,  were  avaricious 
and  unfeeling.  Small  farms  were  united  into  large  inclosures 
for  sheep-raising ;  whole  villages  and  even  churches  were  razed 
to  the  ground;  tenants  were  summarily  evicted  and  turned 
adrift;  the  country  was  overrun  with  thieves  and  beggars  as 
never  before.  From  the  debasement  of  the  currency,  which  began 
in  the  reign  of  Edward  IV,  it  resulted  that  the  shilling  of  1551 
contained  less  than  one-seventh  of  the  fine  silver  of  the  shilling 
of  1527.  Between  1495  and  1533,  wheat  rose  from  four  shill- 
ings to  over  eight  shillings  per  quarter;  but  the  increase  in 
wages  during  the  same  period  was  far  from  being  proportion- 
ate— the  pay  of  an  agricultural  laborer  rising  only  from  two 
shillings  to  two  shillings  three-pence  per  week.  All  these  con- 
ditions united  to  produce  deep  and  widespread  misery,  which 
is  mirrored  in  the  satirical  verse  of  the  period. 

Such  conditions  as  these  are  pictured  in  the  ballad  Nowa- 
days.1 Its  thirty-five  eight-line  stanzas  are  strongly  reminis- 
cent in  their  tone,  form  and  subject-matter,  of  the  poem  on 
the  evils  of  Edward  IFs  reign.2  Its  subject-matter  is  widely 
inclusive,  for  the  writer  reviews  the  whole  state  of  the  country 
from  the  point  of  view  of  a  moralist  and  a  public  sympathizer. 
While  in  several  stanzas  we  find  general  complaints  that  may 
or  may  not  spring  from  specific  circumstances,  yet  there  is 
after  all  very  little  of  the  "  satirical  commonplace,"  for  Nowa- 
days derives  its  significance  and  vitality  largely  from  its  con- 
temporary references.  The  absence  of  any  allusion  to  monastic 
disestablishment  or  to  the  intolerable  taxation  that  marked 
the  last  years  of  Wolsey's  regime,  would  seem  to  place  the 

1  Ballads  from  Manuscripts,  ed.  Furnivall,  vol.   i,  p.  93. 
3  See  supra,  p.  64  f. 


170 

date  of  the  poem  somewhere  about  1520.  The  church  and  the 
laity,  the  lords  and  the  Commons,  the  city  and  the  country, 
are  alike  arraigned  with  considerable  effectiveness,  and  in  an 
earnest,  popular  style.  Here  is  the  voice  of  the  poor,  but  also 
the  complaint  of  the  moralist.  The  old  charges  against  clerical 
corruption  and  the  sale  of  benefices  are  reinforced  by  a  criti- 
cism of  the  commercial  spirit  among  the  clergy: 

"  Men  say  that  priors  &  abbottes  be 
Grate  grosyers  in  this  countre; 
They  vse  bying  &  sellyng  openlye; 

the  church  hath  the  name. 
Thei  are  nott  content  with  ther  possession, 
But  gapyng  ever  for  promotion, 
&  thus  withdrawyng  mens  Devotion, 

vnto  the  landes  grete  shame." 

Nowadays  is  not,  on  the  one  hand,  the  literary  Satire  of 
Skelton,  popular  in  form  as  that  is,  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  is 
it  the  mere  popular  political  ballad.  It  seems  rather  a  cross  be- 
tween the  two ;  for,  though  somewhat  self-conscious,  it  is  lack- 
ing in  literary  form,  and  seems  to  spring  from  the  people.  It 
shows  little  personality,  for  it  is  both  anonymous  and  without 
personal  allusions,  yet  it  illustrates  the  English  tendency  to 
pass  in  review  public  events,  and,  when  necessary,  to  express 
freely  and  fearlessly  an  adverse  opinion. 

The  extravagant  fashions  of  this  period  are  attacked  in  The 
Manner  of  the  World  Nowadays,  a  ballad  that  may  have  been 
written  by  Skelton.3  While  it  embodies  a  mixture  of  charges, 
such  as  might  apply  to  any  age,  it  contains  a  number  of  specific 
references  to  its  own  time.  It  is  reminiscent  of  Lydgate,  as 
it  inveighs  with  a  certain  amount  of  humor  against  pointed 
caps,  pranked  coats  and  sleeves,  guarded  hose,  new-fashioned 
daggers,  and  other  French  importations  dear  to  the  courtier 
and  gallant  of  the  period. 

Something  of  this  same  material  is  embodied  in  Wynkyn  de 
Worde's  rather  more  elaborate  and  far  more  celebrated  Trea- 
tise of  this  Gallant,  written  about  1520,  in  thirty-two  rime  royal 

3  The  Works  of  John  Skelton,  i,  i48f;  Old  Ballads,  ed  Collier,  Percy 
Soc.  Pub.,  vol.  i,  p.  i. 


171 

stanzas.*  In  this  mixture  of  moral  and  social  satire,  we  find 
material  that  is  at  times  general  and  again  strictly  contempo- 
rary. The  writer  begins  with  a  lament  on  England's  pres- 
ent condition,  and  describes  the  dress  of  the  gallant  of  the 
period — "Warrocked  hoode,"  "parrocked  pouche,"  dag- 
gers, "  purpled  garments,"  "  rolled  hodes,  stuffed  with  flockes," 
doublets  open  at  the  breast,  slashed  gown  and  coats,  tippets 
like  a  chain  in  which  they  go  haltered  like  a  horse  to  the 
stable,  "  the  new  bulwarks  that  they  wear  at  the  knee."  Women 
are  rebuked  for  infidelity  to  their  husbands,  for  dressing  like 
men,  and  for  giving  themselves  to  wantonness;  and  prelates, 
lords,  and  merchants  are  bitterly  arraigned.  The  people,  how- 
ever, are  pitied,  for  they  are  bare- footed,  hungry,  and  miser- 
able: 

"  So  moche  rychesse  and  araye  and  so  moche  nede 
So  many  bedes  borne  and  so  lytell  deuocyon 
So  moche  fastynge  for  hungre  and  so  lytell  nede 
So  moche  paynted  worshyp  and  so  lytell  reason 
I  trowe  no  man  hath  sene  in  this  regyon 
Our  synne  asketh  vengeaunce  I  am  in  grete  fere. 
In  shorte  tyme  we  shall  wayle  that  euer  it  came  here." 

The  Treatise  of  this  Gallant  is  interesting  in  its  union  of  the 
medieval  and  the  transitional  and  its  very  obvious  imitation 
of  Skelton's  Speke  Parrot.  In  the  serious,  even  bitter  tone; 
in  the  discussion  of  the  seven  deadly  sins;  in  the  arraignment 
of  various  social  classes,  it  is  thoroughly  medieval;  but  in 
the  somewhat  satirical  description  of  the  gallant's  dress,  and  the 
reference  to  the  follies  of  the  court,  it  is  more  characteristic 
of  its  own  period.  Still,  as  a  whole,  it  is  largely  a  survival 
of  the  old  moral  rebuke  in  which  the  satirist  was  moved  to 
indignation,  not  laughter,  and,  being  chiefly  an  imitation,  it  is 
not  especially  significant  or  interesting,  except  as  giving  variety 
to  the  social  satire  of  its  time. 

The  Ruin  of  a  Realm,  also  composed  about  1520,  and  written 
in  rime  royal  stanzas,  is  preserved  in  manuscript  only.  It  is 
characterized  by  very  much  the  same  tone  as  Wynkyn  de 
Worde's  lugubrious  Satire.5  No  great  interest  attaches  to  its 

*  Ballads  from  Manuscripts,  i,  445;  Early  Popular  Poetry,  3,   149. 
6  Ballads  from  Manuscripts,  I,  158. 


172 

academic  tone  and  its  general  lament.  It  is  a  serious,  even 
vituperative,  attack  in  the  medieval  manner  on  the  vices  of  the 
prelates.  In  its  animadversions  upon  the  degeneration  of  the 
old  nobility  and  upon  the  evils  of  the  new  court  life,  it  is  far 
more  interesting.  Feudalism  has  passed  away. 

The  dissolution  of  the  monasteries  consummated  in  1536  by 
King  Henry  through  the  agency  of  his  great  minister  Thomas 
Cromwell  was  by  no  means  acceptable  to  the  whole  of  the 
English  people.  Though  the  monks  had  degenerated  into  mere 
land-owners  and  the  friars  into  mere  beggars ;  and  though 
monks  and  friars  both  were  without  religious  enthusiasm,  and 
the  monasteries  had  outlived  their  usefulness,  still  neither 
monks,  friars,  nor  monasteries  were  generally  unpopular.  In- 
deed, in  the  north,  where  the  abbeys  had  long  been  the  refuge 
of  the  poor  and  the  dispensers  of  a  generous  charity,  the  dis- 
establishment was  bitterly  resented,  as  is  witnessed  by  the 
famous  "Pilgrimage  of  Grace"  in  1536.  This  strange  social 
uprising  in  Yorkshire  and  Lincolnshire,  which  was  at  once 
both  "  aristocratic  and  popular,  clerical  and  lay,"  sprang  from 
a  strange  mixture  of  complex  motives.  The  lords  of  the  old 
nobility  rose  against  the  "  upstart "  Cromwell,  who,  from  a 
time  shortly  after  the  fall  of  Wolsey,  had,  under  the  king,  been 
the  supreme  power  in  the  state,  and  was  cordially  hated  by 
every  class  of  people  except  the  extreme  Protestants.  The  peo- 
ple rose  against  the  enclosures  of  land  and  the  grasping  avarice 
of  the  new  land-owners,  against  heavy  taxes,  and  widespread 
social  wretchedness.  Both  clergy  and  people  together  protested 
against  the  dissolution  of  the  monasteries.  Finally,  all  classes, 
the  lords,  the  clergy,  and  the  commons,  were  up  in  arms  against 
the  religious  changes  which  the  king  and  his  iconoclastic  min- 
ister were  forcing  upon  the  nation.  The  "  Pilgrimage  of 
Grace,"  at  first  so  threatening  and  formidable,  was  finally  un- 
successful, and  accomplished  nothing  for  the  alleviation  of  the 
conditions  that  gave  it  birth.  These  social  evils  were  not  to  be 
remedied  even  in  part  until  the  time  of  Elizabeth.  Disestab- 
lishment was  to  proceed  apace  until  it  ended  in  1545  in  the  con- 
fiscation of  the  property  of  the  guilds.  The  old  nobility  was  to 
grow  weaker  and  weaker.  Religious  changes  were  to  proceed 


173 

until  they  resulted  in  the  complete  protestantism  desired  by 
Cranmer  and  Somerset. 

It  was  just  at  this  period  that  An  Exhortation  to  the  Nobles 
and  Commons  of  the  North?  in  twenty-five  six-line  stanzas, 
summed  up  these  conditions.  One  wonders  whether  it  was 
written  before  or  after  the  "  Pilgrimage  of  Grace  "  and  what 
relation  it  might  have  sustained  to  that  famous  uprising.  Its 
tone  is  fanatical,  vehement,  and  wholly  polemical.  The  sup- 
pression of  the  monasteries  is  the  theme,  and  Cromwell  as  the 
author  of  the  mischief  is  roundly  abused.  "  It  is  these  miser- 
able heretics  under  Cromwell  their  chief,  who  have  caused  all 
this  trouble : 

This  curseide  cromwell  by  hys  gret  pollicie 
in  this  Realme  haith  causid  gret  exaction, 
then  hyly  promotyng  that  settes  outte  heresie ; 
by  the  aide  of  the  chancellors,  vsyng  exortacyon. 
Agans  them  all  for  to  fyght,  I  think  yt  conuenient, 
and  noit  for  to  seisse  tyll  ther  lyves  be  spent." 

Yet  the  king,  in  whose  hands  Cromwell  was  but  a  servile  instru- 
ment, was  alone  responsible  for  disestablishment.  It  is,  how- 
ever, characteristic  of  this  period  of  Tudor  absolutism  that  the 
king's  name  is  never  mentioned ;  first  Wolsey  and  then  Crom- 
well are  held  responsible  for  all  the  evils  of  Henry's  reign. 

Ten  years  pass  by  before  the  voice  of  the  people  is  again 
heard.  Henry  VIII  is  with  his  fathers,  and  Somerset  is  Lord 
Protector  of  the  realm ;  but  the  evils  and  abuses  that  had  called 
forth  so  loud  a  protest  in  the  former  reign  have  become  intol- 
erably aggravated.  Enclosures  and  evictions  have  grown  even 
more  common ;  the  debasement  of  the  currency  has  continued, 
with  a  proportionate  rise  of  prices.  At  Norwich  twenty  thou- 
sand men  have  risen,  calling  for  the  removal  of  evil  counsellors, 
prohibition  of  enclosures  and  redress  for  the  poor.  We  should 
expect  such  conditions  to  be  mirrored  in  some  popular  protest, 
and  so  they  are.  Vox  Populi,  Vox  Dei,  written  about  1547,  by 
some  clumsy  imitator  of  Skelton's  style,  and  addressed  to  Som- 
erset, Lord  Protector,  is  indeed  the  "  voice  of  the  people," 

9  Ballads  from  Manuscripts,  i,  301. 


174 

whether  or  not  it  be  the  "voice  of  God."7  Through  these  eight 
hundred  and  fifteen  Skeltonical  lines  rings  a  strong  enthusiasm, 
and  a  mighty  sympathy  for  the  poor.  The  satire  is  purely  social, 
with  a  singular  unity  of  theme  and  a  form  well  suited  to  its 
subject-matter.  Replete  with  allusions  to  contemporary 
affairs,  the  strong  and  vehement  torrent  of  the  verse  hur- 
ries straight  on  without  any  digressions  into  didacticism  or 
moralizing.  The  gist  is  the  wrongs  of  the  agricultural  labor- 
ing classes.  Free  from  any  moral  protest  or  satirical  common- 
place, this  strictly  contemporary  material  is  treated  by  some  one 
who  has  an  eye  on  the  objects  about  which  he  is  writing.  In 
eleven  sections  of  unequal  length,  the  writer  refers  to  the 
avarice  of  the  great  landowners  (sheepmasters  who  had  de- 
prived the  poor  of  a  livelihood),  the  debasement  of  the  cur- 
rency and  the  misery  entailed  thereby,  the  rise  in  the  price  of 
meat,  the  forced  vagabondage  of  the  laboring  man : 

"  I   mene   the   laboreng   man, 
I  mene  the  husbande  man, 
I  mene  the  plowghe  man, 
I  mene  the  handy-craft  man, 
I  mene  the  vy  [tal]  lyng  man, 
and  also  the  gud  yoman 
that  some  tyme  in  this  realme 
hade  plente  of  key  and  creme, 
butter,  egges,  and  chesse, 
honey,  vax,  and  besse; 
but  now,  a-lacke !  a-lacke  ! 
al  thes  men  gowe  to  wrake, 
that  are  the  bodye  and  staye 
of  youre  grasis   realme  alwaye." 

Vox  Populi,  Vox  Dei,  a  genuine  popular  appeal,  purposeful 
though  it  be  and  permeated  with  a  strange  sort  of  power,  is  too 
devoid  of  humor  to  be  satirical.  At  a  time  which  produced 
practically  no  literature  of  any  kind,  and  perhaps  no  verse  that 
can  be  termed  in  any  true  sense  satirical,  the  significance  and 
value  of  the  Vox  Populi,  Vox  Dei,  lies  mainly  in  its  direct, 
fearless,  and  forcible  expression  of  the  hereditary  English  inter- 
est in  public  affairs. 

1  The  Works  of  John  Skelton,  2,  400;  Ballads  from  Manuscripts,  i,  124. 


175 

II 

In  subject-matter,  medieval  verse-satire  can  show  nothing 
more  remarkable  than  its  frequent  attacks  on  Woman.  These 
constitute  a  sort  of  school  of  satirical  verse,  dragging  out  an 
existence  through  centuries.  They  embody  an  immense 
amount  of  satirical  commonplace,  set  forth  in  a  spirit  vituper- 
ative rather  than  critical.  The  attack  is  not  confined  to  any 
one  literature  or  period,  but  is  met  with  at  every  turn,  often 
in  places  the  most  incongruous.  In  the  Latin  poem  Geburt 
Jesu,  of  the  thirteenth  century,  reverence  and  eulogy  of  the 
Virgin  Mother  are  succeeded  by  gross  abuse  of  contemporary 
womanhood.  From  the  twelfth  century  on,  innumerable  ex- 
amples occur  in  both  verse  and  prose,  Latin,  French,  and  Eng- 
lish. In  Goliardic  verse  we  have  the  Golias  de  Conjuge  non 
Ducenda*  and  many  others.  Anglo-French  furnishes  its 
full  share:  La  Jeste  des  Dames?  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
in  sixteen  quatrains,  is  a  lightly  satirical  attack  chiefly  on  the 
vanity  of  women.  Ragman  Roll,10  and  the  really  satirical  but 
indecent  Song  on  Woman  of  the  fifteenth  century,  perpetuate 
the  tradition  in  English.  In  the  early  sixteenth  century  it 
culminates,  and,  as  a  formal  genre,  does  not  die  until  Eliza- 
bethan times,  when  satirists  find  something  better  to  say. 

What  was  the  origin  of  the  Satire  on  Woman?  Perhaps 
the  Roman  de  la  Rose,  with  its  hundreds  of  lines  of  bitter 
taunts  and  witty  gibes  against  women,  had  something  to  do 
with  the  later  product.  But  long  before  Jean  de  Meung,  the 
Goliards  indulged  in  it,  inspired,  perhaps,  by  the  theological 
doctrine  of  the  Fall  of  Man  through  woman,  and  the  teaching 
of  the  Church  that,  to  the  clergy,  Woman  was  a  delusion  and 
a  snare,  to  be  shunned  and,  incidentally,  to  be  vituperated.  In 
the  case  of  the  Trouveres,  very  possibly  this  Satire  on  Woman 
resulted  in  an  attempt  to  parody  and  counteract  the  extrava- 
gant love-poetry  of  the  German  Minnesangers.11  Wright 
thinks  it  resulted  from  a  corrupt  state  of  society,  as  did  the 

8  See  supra,  p.  41. 

9  Reliquiae  Antique? ,  i,  162-3. 

10  See  supra,  p.  122. 

11  Haessner,  Die  Goliardendichtung,  passim. 


176 

terrific  onslaughts  of  Juvenal.  On  the  whole,  however,  eccle- 
siastical influence  seems  to  have  predominated,  and  the  Church 
was  probably  the  main  source  of  this  satirical  genre.  What- 
ever its  origin,  the  attack  became  so  frequent  and  so  unspar- 
ing in  the  fifteenth  century,  that  replies  thereto  seemed  neces- 
sary; and  so  we  find  the  admirable  Occleve  in  The  Letter  of 
Cupid  taking  up  the  cudgel  and  defending  women  against  the 
inconstancy  and  deceit  of  men.lla  These  sixty-eight  seven-line 
stanzas  should  have  been  sufficient;  but  none  the  less  the 
women  seem  to  have  attacked  Occleve  as  a  defamer  of  the 
sex,  and  he  found  it  necessary  in  his  Dialogue — at  least 
through  the  last  eighteen  stanzas  of  the  eight  hundred  and 
twenty-six  lines — to  defend  himself  against  the  accusation. 

The  Pain  and  Sorrow  of  Evil  Marriage™  a  translation  of 
the  Goliardic  poem  De  Conjuge  non  Ducenda,  in  twenty-two 
rime  royal  stanzas,  appeared  early  in  the  sixteenth  century. 
It  is  a  very  general  but  bitter  attack  on  Woman,  a  warning  to 
youth,  didactic  in  its  tone  and  devoid  of  merit  or  of  interest. 
Just  as  bitter  and  general,  but  much  more  gross,  is  The  School- 
House  of  Women™  written  about  I54O.14  It  is  in  one  hun- 
dred and  forty-seven  stanzas  of  seven  lines  each,  with  four 
accents  to  the  line.  In  this  medley  of  anecdote,  of  illustrations 
drawn  from  Biblical  and  classical  sources,  and  of  direct  ac- 
cusations, every  imaginable  charge  is  brought  against  the  sex. 
It  is,  indeed,  a  summary  of  all  satire  of  its  type. 

This  gross  invective  and  direct  abuse  changes  to  a  tone  at 
times  humorous  and  really  satirical  in  The  Proud  Wives  Pater 
Noster™  written  in  seventy-two  eight-line  stanzas.  The 
Pater  Noster  bears  little  relation  to  contemporary  life;  but 
dialogue  and  narrative,  and  freedom  from  didacticism  and 

m  Cf.  Chaucer's  Legend  of  Good  Women. 

"Pub.  Percy  Soc.,  vol.  I,  ed.  Collier;  Early  Pop.  Poetry,  ed.  Hazlitt, 
4,  73- 

u  Early  Pop.  Poetry,  4,  97;  Select  Pieces  of  Early  Popular  Poetry,  ed. 
Utterson,  vol.  2,  p.  51. 

14  Almost  a  century  later,  The  School-House  evoked  from  Edward  More 
a  reply  entitled  The  Defence  of  Women, — a  late  example  of  the  same 
genre  to  which  belong  Occleve's  Letter  of  Cupid  and  Dialogue. 

18  Early  Pop.  Poetry,  4,  147;  Select  Pieces  of  Early  Pop.  Poetry,  2,  144. 


177 

invective,  give  it  an  interest  superior  to  that  attaching  to  other 
satire  of  the  kind.  It  opens  with  a  visit  of  a  wife  to  church. 
She  interlards  her  Pater  Noster  with  frequent  expression  of 
most  worldly  desires.  The  narrative  passes  into  dialogue  as 
the  two  wives  exchange  confidences  regarding  husbands,  and 
advise  together  as  how  best  to  manage  the  unreasonable  crea- 
tures. The  first  wife  returns  home  to  put  the  advice  into 
practice.  Failing  to  wheedle  her  husband  into  foolish  expen- 
ditures, she  steals  his  money  and  brings  him  to  ruin.  This 
form  has  something  in  common  with  Dunbar's  The  Two  Mar- 
ried Women  and  the  Widow,  though  here  the  satire  is  not  so 
stinging  nor  the  indecorous  element  so  preponderant.  Chau- 
cer's Wife  of  Bath,  herself  no  saint,  would  have  despised 
such  marital  conduct. 

But  this  humorous  and  truly  satirical  tone  fails  to  manifest 
itself  in  a  treatise  Showing  and  Declaring  the  Pride  and  Abuse 
of  Women  Nowadays,  written  by  a  certain  Charles  Bansley.16 
This  is  a  sermon  of  direct  rebuke  in  fifty-nine  four-line  stan- 
zas, coarse  and  vituperative  in  its  tone,  general  in  its  subject- 
matter.  The  author  is  evidently  a  Protestant,  for  we  are  told 

"  From  Rome,  from  Rome,  this  carkered  pryde, 
From  Rome  it  came,  doubtless." — 

Finally,  inane  and  ineffective  as  it  is,  this  species — the  Satire 
on  Woman — is  destined  to  long  life,  for  it  crops  out  here  and 
there  in  the  informal  satire  of  the  Elizabethans.  Indeed,  has 
it  ever  died  away? 

Ill 

Among  the  numerous  social  evils  of  the  times  of  Henry 
VIII  the  most  conspicuous  was  that  of  vagabondage.  This 
evil  had  been  of  slow  growth.  For  centuries  it  had  been  in- 
"creasing — ever  since  the  introduction  of  sheep  raising  as  a 
national  industry  had  thrown  large  numbers  of  agricultural 
laborers  out  of  employment.  But  never  had  it  been  so  gen- 
eral or  so  threatening  as  now.  New  industrial  conditions  had 
arisen,  and  to  these  the  lower  orders  had  not  accommodated 

"Early  Pop.  Poetry,  4,  227  f. 


178 

themselves.  The  continued  and  extensive  enclosures  for 
sheep  raising,  which  have  been  referred  to,  aggravated  a  con- 
dition which  Parliament  was  unable  to  check  by  the  most  strin- 
gent laws.  These  laws  not  only  restricted  the  landlord  in  his 
operations,  but  imposed  severe  punishment  on  beggars  and 
vagabonds.  Still  the  evil  grew,  and  it  continued  until  the  eco- 
nomic balance  was  readjusted  in  a  later  reign.  England  was 
infested  with  gangs  of  mendicants  and  thieves,  some  really 
impotent  to  gain  a  living,  some  able-bodied  and  "  sturdy," 
seeking  honest  employment,  others  professional  beggars  and 
cheats,  who  thus  took  advantage  of  the  prevailing  economic 
conditions  to  practice  wholesale  fraud. 

From  such  transient  conditions  of  this  era,  sprang  a  pecu- 
liar form  of  satire.  It  first  appeared  in  The  Ship  of  Fools, 
flourished  for  a  generation  in  a  number  of  imitations  of  the 
greater  work,  and  gradually  died  as  its  source  failed  with  the 
disappearance  of  the  excesses  it  essayed  to  attack.  Sporadic 
satire  on  beggars  and  begging  there  had  always  been,  but  it 
had  never  developed  into  a  distinct  variety  until  these  favor- 
able conditions  gave  it  shape.  In  form  the  Satire  on  rogues 
and  beggars  is  an  elaboration  of  the  old  Satire  on  classes. 

Cocke  Lorelle's  Bote17  is  the  best-known  and  perhaps  the 
most  interesting  of  all  the  numerous  progeny  of  The  Ship  of 
Fools.  This  highly  humorous  and  really  satirical  burlesque 
was  printed  by  Wynkyn  de  Worde  some  time  early  in  the  reign 
of  Henry  VIII.  Its  plan,  that  of  a  ship  of  rogues,  is  of 
course  imitated  from  the  famous  and  popular  work  of  Bar- 
clay. Of  the  poem,  only  four  hundred  and  fourteen  lines 
survive,  written  in  a  kind  of  tumbling  verse,  rhyming 
a  a  b  a  c  b,  usually  of  three  and  four  accents,  but  permitting 
a  large  variety. 

Cock  Lorell,  a  notorious  vagabond,  has  a  boat  for  the  recep- 
tion of  all  classes  of  rogues  in  England.  These  come  to- 
gether, seeking  for  passage  in  the  boat,  and  are  described,  the 
first  few  with  some  degree  of  minuteness.  The  later  ones, 
who  come  by  scores,  are  merely  named.  All,  of  course,  are 
rogues,  not  only  from  the  class  of  professional  vagabonds,  but 

17  Percy  Soc.  Pub.,  vol.  6,  ed.  Rimbault. 


179 

also  from  the  trading  classes,  each  of  which  is  represented, — 
thus  we  infer  that,  in  the  writer's  opinion,  every  class  is  full 
of  rogues.  The  abrupt  beginning  introduces  a  woman  of  the 
lower  class,  who  is  followed  by  a  cobbler,  a  shoemaker,  a  tan- 
ner, a  butcher,  and  so  on,  and  finally  by  a  pardoner.  The 
appearance  of  this  last  personage  introduces  an  elaborate  piece 
of  burlesque,  as  the  pardoner  reads  his  roll  and  describes  his 
wares.  One  is  of  course  reminded  of  Chaucer's  inimitable 
treatment  of  this  same  theme.18 

Here  follows  a  realistic  bit  of  description,  disgusting  per- 
haps, but  significant,  which  fills  over  one-fourth  the  extant 
part  of  the  poem.  Best  of  all  the  motley  throng  is  the  butcher, 
"  gored  in  reed  blode,"  with  his  two  bull-dogs  and  his  greasy 
hose.  Crowded  at  last  with  representatives  of  every  imagin- 
able class  of  rogues,  the  ship  sails  away.  The  various  occupa- 
tions of  the  passengers  are  described.  Some  merely  "  why- 
teled  after  the  wynde."  Merry  and  sportful  was  the  life  on 
the  ship  as  she  sailed  fair  England  around,  calling  at  every 
"  vyllage,  towne,  cyte,  and  borrowe."  As  the  writer  wends 
homeward,  he  meets  with  a  company  of 

"  — ermytes,   monkes  and   freres, 
Chanons,  chartores,  and  inholders; 
And   many   whyte   nonnes   with   whyte   vayles." 

They  seek  passage  on  the  boat,  but  are  too  late.  The  writer 
advises  them  to  wait  another  year,  until  Cock  Lorell  comes 
around  again. 

In  this  social  Satire  is  a  strange  mingling  of  realistic  and 
of  burlesque  description.  In  realistic  description  and  in  char- 
acter study,  it  is  a  product  of  the  Renaissance,  connecting  it- 
self in  these  qualities  with  other  pieces  of  contemporary  satire. 
Its  atmosphere  is  thoroughly  English ;  and,  for  verisimilitude, 
the  Pardoner,  in  his  burlesque  description,  alludes  to  various 
London  localities, — St.  Giles,  St.  Katherine's,  London  Bridge. 
In  its  Rabelaisian  humor  and  broad  burlesque  and  its  absolute 
freedom  from  didacticism,  Cocke  Lorell's  Bote  is  utterly  dif- 

18  To   be   followed    by   the   dramatic   treatment   in   the   work   of   Lyndsay 
and  of  Heywood,  q.  v. 


180 

ferent  from  The  Ship  of  Fools.  In  that  it  is  partly  a  Satire 
on  classes,  it  connects  itself  with  the  past.  Yet  it  is  not  the 
product  of  literary  traditions,  but  of  the  free,  broad,  spontane- 
ous impulses  of  its  period.  In  realism  and  in  power  of 
characterization  it  perhaps  owes  something  to  Barclay;  but 
these  qualities,  appearing  sporadically  in  satire  since  the  days 
of  Langland,  are  now  in  the  air.  With  Cocke  Lorell's  Bate 
we  begin  that  satire  of  low  life  which  is  hereafter  to  be  peren- 
nial in  English  literature. 

Contemporary  with  Cocke  Lorell  was  The  Hye  Way  to  the 
Spyttel  Hous,19  ascribed  to  a  certain  Robert  Copland.  This 
extraordinary  production  lacks  the  strong  burlesque  of  Cocke 
Lorell,  but  is  in  some  respects  even  more  remarkable.  Our 
interest  in  it  arises  from  its  immediate  relation  to  contempor- 
ary conditions,  its  author's  clear  insight,  and  his  powers  of 
minute  description.  It  is  in  no  sense  poetical;  nor  is  it, 
strictly  speaking,  a  Satire.  The  Hye  Way  is  a  versified  eco- 
nomic tract,  written  with  a  purpose — an  unsparing  exposure 
of  the  frauds  perpetrated  by  the  mendicant  classes.  Its  debt 
to  the  "  Fool  satire  "  is  obvious,  though  its  scope  is  narrower 
than  that  of  The  Ship  of  Fools:  its  class  of  fools  is  that  of 
those  beggars  who  are  brought  to  poverty  through  their  own 
folly.20  In  its  humorous  and  minute  realism,  it  exemplifies 
the  growing  disposition  to  study  and  portray  low  life  which 
appeared  first  in  the  work  of  Langland  and  intermittently  ever 
after.  Now,  however,  this  interest  in  the  lower  orders  and 
their  habits  of  life  is  vastly  fed  by  contemporary  conditions — 
an  interest  in  this  case  not  merely  literary  but  scientific;  for 
our  author  not  only  is  awake  to  the  life  around  him,  but  in- 
quires into  its  causes.  The  Hye  Way  to  the  Spyttel  Hous  is 
almost  twelve  hundred  lines  in  length;  written  mainly  in  the 
pentameter  couplet,  with  an  introduction  in  rime  royal.  The 
form  is  narrative  and  descriptive;  the  style,  simple,  direct, 
realistic,  without  trace  of  literary  tradition. 

The  author,  taking  refuge  from  a  winter  storm,  stops  at  a 

10  Early  Popular  Poetry,  4,  17  f. ;  Select  Pieces  of  Early  Popular  Poetry, 
2,   i    f. 

"  See  Herford,  pp.  359-62. 


181 

certain  hospital.  With  the  porter  he  holds  a  lengthy  conver- 
sation, which  turns  on  social  conditions  and  reviews  the  whole 
range  of  mendicancy  in  a  series  of  graphic  pictures.  These 
descriptions  are  not  only  realistic  and  humorous,  but  contem- 
porary. There  is  in  them,  however,  something  universal  and 
permanent  as  well.  One  of  the  most  striking  of  these  scenes, 
selected  from  a  large  number  almost  equally  vivid,  is  that  of 
the  porter's  description  of  his  experiences  at  St.  Paul's.  He 
tells  of  dishonest  mendicants  who  simulate  indigence,  but  are 
in  reality  more  prosperous  than  the  very  people  who  contrib- 
ute to  their  support. 

Another  Satire  of  this  class,  The  Twenty-five  Orders  of 
Fools,  is  so  deeply  indebted  to  Barclay  as  to  be  a  mere  epitome 
— though  a  lamentably  colorless  and  feeble  one — of  The  Ship 
of  Fools.  Not  only  its  characters  but  sometimes  its  very  ex- 
pressions are  drawn  from  the  earlier  and  greater  work.  Still 
another  example  of  this  satire  on  fools  and  rogues,  Awdeley's 
Quatern  of  Knaves,  connects  with  Barclay  through  Cocke 
Lorell.  It  is  a  class  Satire,  a  genuine  study  of  rogues,  and 
shows  a  gain  in  power  of  realistic  character  portrayal.21 

Altogether,  this  satire  on  certain  phases  of  low  life  is 
closely  related,  in  its  realism  and  its  humor,  as  well  as  in  its 
didactic  purpose,  to  similar  subject-matter  found  in  the  more 
humorous  and  realistic  Moralities  of  about  this  same  period.22 

IV 

The  "  Satire  of  the  Reformation  "  is  even  more  character- 
istic of  this  period  of  change  than  is  the  "  Satire  of  Rogues." 
Religious  satire  in  a  broad  sense  had  existed,  as  we  have  seen, 
since  the  days  of  Walter  Map.  It  is  the  expression  of  a  salient 
English  characteristic,  which  has  shown  itself  in  the  some- 
times humorous,  sometimes  bitter  gibes  of  the  old  Goliardic 
school ;  in  the  almost  inarticulate  wails  of  would-be  reformers ; 
in  the  strong  arraignments  of  Langland ;  in  the  polemic  pro- 
tests of  the  Lollards. 

21  For    a    description    of    The    Twenty-five    Orders   of   Fools   and   of   the 
Quatern  of  Knaves  the   present  writer   is   entirely   indebted   to    Professor 
Herford's  Studies  in   the  Literary  Relations  of  England  and  Germany  in 
the  Sixteenth   Century. 

22  Cf.  infra,  ch.  VII,  passim. 


182 

The  Lollard  satire  represented  far  more  than  the  traditional 
Satire  on  religious  matters.  It  was  a  revolutionary  attack  on 
doctrines  as  well  as  on  morals ;  a  call  for  change  of  creed,  as 
well  as  for  a  reformed  morality.  But  these  protests,  powerful, 
searching,  bitter  as  they  were,  failed  in  their  object:  Lollardry, 
with  all  its  revolutionary  doctrines,  fell  before  the  Lancastrian 
persecution  in  the  earlier  fifteenth  century ;  and  for  a  season 
the  revolutionary  voices  were  hushed.  But  only  for  a  season. 
For  the  Lutheran  satire  of  a  hundred  years  later  was  the  logical 
continuation  of  the  Lollard  cry  for  doctrinal  reform.  Under 
the  impulse  of  Lutheranism  from  without,  the  embers  of  Lol- 
lardry were  blown  into  flame.  The  religious  satire  produced 
by  the  radical  puritans  of  this  later  time,  which  we  call  the 
Satire  of  the  Reformation,  added  the  more  radical  element  to 
a  renewal  of  the  old  plaints  and  of  the  old  calls  for  moral  and 
doctrinal  reform. 

Such  was  the  satire  of  the  religious  revolutionists,  the  radi- 
cals. It  had  its  antitype  in  the  satire  of  the  extreme  conserva- 
tives. The  voice  that  spoke  in  the  time  of  Wycliffe  against 
Lollardry,  the  voice  that  rejected  reform  and  defended  the  old 
order,  was  still  heard,  opposed  utterly  both  to  Lutheranism  and 
to  the  gentler,  more  gradual  reform  proposed  by  the  men  of  the 
New  Learning. 

Besides  both  of  these  partisan  varieties,  there  was  a  long  line 
of  religious  reformers  who,  since  the  days  of  Walter  Map,  had 
spoken  in  English  satire — had  spoken  in  the  Goliardic  verses, 
in  Piers  Plowman,  in  the  work  of  Lydgate  and  of  Gower. 
This  line  of  moderates  was  represented  now  by  Skelton  and  the 
great  scholars  of  the  English  Renaissance,  who  voiced  .the 
medium  between  Lutheranism  and  extreme  conservatism. 
Save  Skelton,  they  spoke  mainly  in  prose ;  and  it  was  of  course 
in  prose — the  usual  vehicle  of  religious  disputation — that  the 
religious  spirit  of  the  time  largely  found  expression. 

But  from  1526,  when  Tyndale's  translation  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament was  introduced  into  England,  on  to  the  close  of  Henry 
VIII's  reign,  the  Reformation  was  an  increasingly  powerful 
and  vigorous  movement,  with  both  opposition  and  support  un- 
sparing and  outspoken.  As  a  natural  result,  we  find  in  this 


183 

period  a  considerable  amount  of  verse-satire  both  for  and 
against  the  movement.  As  might  be  expected,  such  satire 
possesses  very  little  literary  merit.  It  is  vituperative  rather 
than  critical ;  it  deals  in  invective  rather  than  in  true  satire ;  it 
is  interesting  only  for  the  light  it  casts  upon  the  religious  tem- 
per of  the  time.  As  has  been  said,  the  Satire  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, strictly  so-called,  is  distinguished  from  the  previous  religi- 
ous satire — except  that  of  the  Lollards — in  that  it  deals  distinctly 
with  the  doctrines  of  the  Lutheran  Reformation.  The  satire 
of  the  reformatory  party,  not  content  with  merely  ridiculing  or 
abusing  clerical  immorality  and  ecclesiastical  corruption,  at- 
tacks the  very  doctrines  and  polity  of  the  Church — the  Mass 
and  all  that  it  implied,  shrines,  images,  pilgrimages,  celibacy 
of  the  clergy,  and  all  else  against  which  the  reformers  made  a 
stand.  Although  preluded  in  tone  and  much  of  its  subject- 
matter  by  the  Lollard  satire,  it  is  quite  unconscious  of  literary 
tradition,  and  whatever  heritage  it  has  from  the  past  is  cer- 
tainly not  one  of  literary  form. 

Only  two  verse-Satires  of  this  period  rise  into  eminence. 
One  is  The  Satire  of  the  Three  Estates  by  Sir  David  Lyndsay, 
the  Scotchman ;  the  other,  Rede  Me  and  Be  Nott  Wrothe,  by 
two  Franciscan  friars,  Roy  and  Barlow.  Both  Satires  repre- 
sent the  radical  or  even  revolutionary  religious  party,  though 
Lyndsay,  as  we  shall  see  later,  stands  in  a  class  apart.  Be- 
fore we  discuss  Rede  Me  and  Be  Nott  Wrothe,  it  is  necessary 
to  review  briefly  a  series  of  events  that  led  up  to  the  poem  and 
largely  gave  it  motive,  and  without  a  knowledge  of  which  it  is 
hardly  explicable.  / 

The  New  Learning,  which  in  England  took  a  religious  turn, 
had  for  one  of  its  effects  the  translation  of  the  Bible.  It  was 
to  be  expected  that  all  attempts  to  bring  the  Bible  home  to  the 
people  should  by  scholars  and  reformers  like  More  be  looked 
upon  as  revolutionary  and  savoring  of  the  Lutheranism  that  was 
just  then  invading  England.  And  such  was  the  case.  William 
Tyndale,  himself  a  scholar  and  reformer,  met  with  opposition 
not  only  from  the  conservative  clergy,  but  from  scholars  of  the 
New  Learning  as  well.  He  was  forced  to  flee  from  English 
persecution,  and  to  finish  in  Germany  his  translation  of  the  New 


184 

Testament.  In  1526  six  thousand  copies  were  surreptitiously 
introduced  into  England.  All  these  were  eagerly  bought  up  by 
a  people  long  hungry  for  religious  truth.  The  translation  was 
unauthorized;  conservatives,  led  by  the  prelates,  cried  out 
against  it.  It  savored  of  Lutheranism  ;  and  thus  even  the  more 
liberal  placed  upon  it  their  ban.  At  Oxford,  it  had  found  a 
generous  welcome,  and  certain  heretical  young  scholars,  oppo- 
nents of  pilgrimages  and  image-worship,  held  secret  meetings  to 
discuss  the  new  teaching  and  read  the  new  translation.  All  this 
was  discovered  by  the  conservative  ecclesiastics,  keen-scented 
for  heresy.  Consequently,  at  the  instigation  chiefly  of  Cuth- 
bert  Tunstal,  the  Bishop  of  London,  with  Wolsey's  consent,  six 
of  these  young  Oxford  scholars  in  penitential  dress,  carrying 
lighted  faggots,  were  forced  to  join  in  a  procession  through  the 
streets  of  London.  At  St.  Paul's  Cross  they  stopped,  and  were 
led  thrice  around  a  blazing  pile  of  books,  into  which  they  cast 
their  faggots.  This  blazing  pile  was  composed  of  copies  of 
Tyndale's  translation  of  the  New  Testament,  bought  up  or 
confiscated  by  the  conservatives.23  After  the  bonfire,  a  sermon 
against  heresy  was  preached  by  Fisher,  Bishop  of  Rochester. 
But  the  people  did  not  take  kindly  to  the  spectacular  exhibition : 
they  called  it  a  "  burning  of  the  word  of  God."  This  peni- 
tential procession  made  a  tremendous  stir  in  the  religious  world. 
It  was  only  the  small  beginning  of  prolonged  and  bitter  persecu- 
tion, but  it  echoed  in  verse  for  many  a  day. 

Skelton,  or,  as  we  would  prefer  to  believe,  some  imitator  of 
Skelton,  dedicates  to  Cardinal  Wolsey  his  piece  of  invective 
against  these  same  six  young  heretics.  It  is  in  the  Skeltonical 
meter,  which  was,  unfortunately,  quite  as  well  adapted  to  such 
impotent  .vituperation  as  it  was  to  the  sledgehammer  strokes  of 
Skelton's  best  work.  The  Replycacion24  extended  through 
some  four  hundred  lines  of  what  professes  to  be  argument,  but 
is  in  truth  mere  vulgar  abuse,  without  sense  and  without  humor. 
Of  its  tone  and  style  a  few  lines  will  suffice  as  illustration : 

23  So   thorough   was   this   confiscation   that   but   two   copies   of   Tyndale's 
translation  have  survived  to  the  present  day. 

24  The  Works  of  John  Skelton,   i,  206. 


185 

"  I  saye,  ye  braynlesse  beestes, 
Why  iangle  you  suche  iestes, 
In  your  diuynite 
Of  Luther's  affynite, 
To  the  people  of  lay  fee, 
Raylyng  in  your  rages 
To  worshyppe  none  ymages, 
Nor  do  pylgrymages  ? 
I  saye,  ye  deuyllysshe  pages, 
Full  of  such  dottages, 
Count  ye  your  selfe  good  clerkes 
And  snapper  in  suche  werkes  ?  " 

Certain  references  to  Luther,  WyclifTe,  and  "  Lollardy 
lernyng  "  show  the  writer  to  be  a  conservative  who  sees  in 
new  translations  of  the  Bible  only  Lutheranism  and  revolution 
— "  sedition,  privy  conspiracy,  and  rebellion." 

If  the  translation  of  the  Bible  had  produced  only  a  Reply - 
cation,  however,  it  would  here  demand  little  attention.  But 
out  of  it  and  subsequent  similar  events  grew  the  Rede  Me  and 
be  Nott  Wrothe,25  greatest  of  English  verse  Satires  of  the 
Reformation  period.  Whether  or  not  Tyndale  was  a  Lutheran, 
the  readers  of  his  translation  became  largely  identified  with  the 
party  of  religious  revolution.  Certainly  there  can  be  no  doubt 
of  the  religious  tenets  of  the  authors  of  Rede  Me  and  be  Nott 
Wrothe,  William  Roy  and  Jerome  Barlow  were  two  English 
friars,  Franciscan  observants,  and  "  Protestants,"  who  had 
taken  refuge  in  Strassburg  from  the  persecution  against  Luth- 
eranism already  begun  in  England.  Germany  was  being  swept 
by  the  Reformation.  Strassburg  was  the  storm-centre.  The 
Swiss  cantons  had  formally  abolished  the  Mass  and  had  taken 
their  stand  unequivocally  in  favor  of  Lutheranism.  But  in 
Strassburg,  a  free  city,  the  Mass,  though  morally  dead,  had  not 
yet  been  buried  by  a  formal  abolition.  This  was  to  come  a 
few  months  later.  Just  at  this  critical  juncture,  these  two  Pro- 
testant friars  indited  Rede  Me  and  be  Nott  Wrothe.  True,  it 
was  both  written  and  printed  abroad;  but  it  was  by  English- 
men, for  Englishmen,  and  about  English  affairs.  In  England 

25  Arber's  English  Reprints,  vol.  II,  pp.  19-123. 


186 

reports  of  its  publication  went  about  in  the  autumn  of  1528, 
and  Wolsey,  "the  protagonist  in  this  religious  drama,"  or- 
dered his  agent  Rynck  to  buy  all  the  purchasable  copies  in  Ger- 
many. Thus  the  edition  was  virtually  destroyed,  and  the  in- 
fluence of  the  powerful  Satire  almost  brought  to  naught.  Had 
it  been  freely  circulated  in  England,  it  might  have  worked  a 
revolution,  or  at  least  have  had  results  comparable  to  those 
effected  in  Scotland  by  its  northern  counterpart,  The  Satire  of 
the  Three  Estates;  for  it  comes  right  from  within  the  fold, 
and  is  thus  all  the  more  unsparing  and  thoroughgoing  in  its 
denunciations  and  exposures.26 

In  form  and  in  tone  Rede  Me  and  be  Nott  Wrothe  presents 
nothing  radically  new.  Its  invective,  sarcasm,  ridicule,  were 
shared  by  much  other  satire  of  the  time ;  and  the  form,  that  of 
dialogue,  was  widely  popular.  Moreover,  its  subject-matter, 
wholly  religious,  is,  so  far  as  regards  its  attack  on  the 
ecclesiastical  orders,  that  of  religious  satire  for  over  three  cen- 
turies preceding  it.  Wolsey  was  a  constant  target  for  contem- 
porary English  satire.  Even  what  seem  the  distinctly  reform- 
atory— the  Protestant — elements  are  not  all  new.  Pilgrimages 
and  shrines  had  been  assailed  by  Langland.  The  celibacy  of 
the  clergy  had  long  been  a  subject  for  controversy.  Pardons 
and  indulgences  had  for  centuries  been  the  objects  of  inces- 
sant attack.  But  the  spoliation  of  the  abbeys  and  the  aboli- 
tion of  the  Mass  itself  are,  of  course,  of  the  Reformation  alone; 
and,  in  the  aggregation  of  all  these  various  charges,  the  attack 
on  the  policy  of  the  Church  and  its  hierarchy,  the  substitution 
of  the  New  Testament  for  the  authority  of  the  Church's  pro- 
paganda, the  call,  not  merely  for  reform  in  moral  standards,  but 
for  radical  changes  in  polity  and  doctrine, — all  these  mark  this 
Satire  as  distinctly  of  the  Protestant  Reformation, — thus  sepa- 
rating it  fundamentally  from  all  that  has  preceded  it.  In 
England  it  is  a  pioneer,  and  by  far  the  greatest  of  its  kind. 

28  Manuel's  Krankheit  der  Messe,  a  poetic  dialogue  of  great  humor  and 
power,  had  begun  the  Mass  satire.  From  this  source  Roy  and  Barlow 
probably  borrowed  their  idea ;  but,  judging  from  the  general  inferiority 
of  their  Satire,  the  two  frars  had  not  read  Manuel's  dialogue.  The  mere 
idea,  however,  might  well  have  reached  them  orally,  since  the  country 
was  full  of  it.  See  Herford,  pp.  43-44. 


187 

In  form,  this  Satire  is  simply  a  dialogue  between  two 
serving-men  of  a  priest.  Watkyn  and  Jeff  ray  e  recognize  the 
fact  that  the  Mass  is  actually  dead  and  that  consequently  their 
master  must  soon  be  without  employment — his  occupation 
gone.  What  shall  they,  then,  do  for  a  living?  This  is  a  deli- 
cate question.  While  considering  it,  they  fall  inevitably  into 
religious  disputation,  after  the  custom  of  their  time.  If  the 
Mass  is  really  dead,  where  shall  it  be  buried, — in  France,  in 
Rome,  or  in  England?  Finally  the  shrine  of  St.  Thomas  at 
Canterbury  is  decided  upon  as  the  most  fitting  place  of  inter- 
ment. Then,  who  shall  perform  the  funeral  ceremony, — 
Cardinal,  Bishops,  Secular  Clergy,  Monks,  or  Friars  ?  As  each 
class  is  considered,  an  opportunity  is  taken  to  expose  its  enor- 
mities ;  and  these  form  the  staple  of  the  theme. 

There  is  nothing  dramatic  in  the  dialogue.  Watkyn  is  the 
simpler  fellow:  he  relies  on  God's  Word  only,  and  to  it  he 
appeals.  But  he  is  acquainted  with  Protestant  affairs  on  the 
Continent;  and  the  first  part  of  the  dialogue  deals  largely 
with  happenings  in  Germany.  Jeffraye,  shrewd,  bitter,  re- 
plete with  common-sense,  is  fresh  from  England.  He  is  thor- 
oughly familiar  with  English  ecclesiastical  affairs  and  knows 
the  craft  and  subtlety  of  the  various  religious  orders.  Through- 
out, he  is  the  bolder  of  the  two,  and  the  principal  speaker. 

The  work  is  dedicated  with  superb  insolence  to  the  "  Car- 
dinal of  York."  It  opens  with  a  piece  of  burlesque —  a  mock- 
lament  for  the  Mass,  supposedly  spoken  by  a  priest  who 
bewails  the  death  of  that  venerable  dignitary  and  his  own 
consequent  loss  of  occupation.  This  consists  of  thirty- four 
seven-line  stanzas  a  b  a  b  b  c  c;  the  first  six  lines  of  five  ac- 
cents ;  the  last,  of  four.  This  mock-lament  is  followed  by  the 
first  part  of  the  dialogue.  In  this  the  two  Protestant  friends 
discuss  generally  the  doctrines  of  the  church — celibacy  of  the 
clergy,  the  Mass,  miracles,  pardons,  pilgrimages,  shrines,  the 
Pope,  religious  affairs  in  England.  Both  Watkyn  and 
Jeffraye  have  heard  much  of  miracles,  but  neither  has  ever 
seen  one.  Priests,  they  say,  reverence  these  fables  a  thousand 
times  more  than  they  do  the  Gospel !  But  severe  as  is  this 
indictment,  their  crowning  piece  of  invective  is  reserved  for 


188 

the  Pope.  After  finishing  with  the  Pope,  and  assailing  the 
celibacy  of  the  clergy,  Jeffraye  strongly  advocates  the  sup- 
pression of  the  monasteries.  This  is  especially  interesting, 
sinc'e  the  poem  was  written  some  years  before  monastic  dis- 
establishment went  to  such  extremes  under  Cromwell.  Jef- 
fraye dwells  upon  the  economic  aspect  of  monastic  land  en- 
croachments, thus  making  the  only  departure  from  a  purely 
religious  tone  in  the  whole  dialogue.  "  These  monks  turn  lands 
into  pasture,  and  let  a  dozen  farms  under  one  lease ;  hence  one 
or  two  rich  franklins  occupy  the  rightful  livings  of  a  dozen 
men."  Thus  is  thrown  upon  the  land-owning  clergy  the  en- 
tire burden  of  a  wretched  social  phase  for  which  they  were 
but  partially  responsible. 

With  such  advanced  Lutheranism,  naturally  go  abundant 
references  to  contemporary  affairs.  Chief  among  such  refer- 
ences are  the  allusions  to  the  reception  of  Tyndale's  New 
Testament  in  England,  and  the  action  of  the  Bishop  of  Lon- 
don. The  burning  of  the  Testament  at  Saint  Paul's  Cross 
is  dwelt  upon  at  length.  Eight  stanzas  in  rime  royal,  filled 
with  bitter  invective,  are  addressed  to  Wolsey  as  the  insti- 
gator of  the  sacrilege.  With  these  contemporary  references 
there  are  many  personalities — and  for  these  the  present  Satire 
is  especially  distinguished.  Wolsey  is  of  course  the  chief 
target  for  abuse.  He  is  "  the  butcher,"  "  the  butcherly 
sloutche";  and,  at  the  same  time,  the  ruler  of  England, 
"  greater  than  King  or  Queen."  Every  possible  charge  is 
alleged  against  his  character,  and  not  one  virtue  is  allowed 
him.  He  is  represented  even  as  a  traitor  to  his  country.  At 
last,  after  the  Cardinal's  character  has  been  minutely  analyzed, 
he  is  chosen  as  the  fittest  celebrant  of  the  obsequies  of  the 
dead  Mass. 

But  Roy  and  Barlow  were  not  content  with  such  large  prey 
as  the  mighty  Wolsey.  Both  on  the  Continent  and  in  Eng- 
land, they  singled  out  for  that  thorough  and  cordial  mud- 
flinging  in  which  they  were  such  adepts,  other  conservatives, 
or  even  reformers,  if  over-cautious.  Father  Mathias,  John 
Faber,  Emfer,  Dr.  Eck,  Murner,  Erasmus,  Thomas  Winter 
(Wolsey's  illegitimate  son),  Standish,  and  Cochlaeus,  are  all 


189 

generously  remembered.  Of  the  last  named,  the  chief  Con- 
tinental spy  of  the  English  prelates,  Watkyn  gives  a  very  un- 
flattering description;  and  to  this  Jeffraye  replies, 

"  Yf  he  be  as  thou  sayst  he  is 
I  warant  he  shall  not  mis 
Of  a  benefice  and  that  shortly. 
For  I  ensure  the  oure  Cardinall 
With  wother  bisshops  in  generall 
Love  soche  a  felowe  entierly." 

After  these  bitter  personalities  and  contemporary  allusions 
follows  a  lament  over  the  decline  of  spirituality  among  eccle- 
siastics, written  in  fifteen  stanzas  of  rime  royal.  This  lament 
forms  an  interlude.  It  might  have  been  written  by  Lydgate, 
so  remote,  so  general,  so  dull  is  it,  and  so  little  has  it  in  com- 
mon with  the  dialogue  proper.  This  old-fashioned  and  lugu- 
brious lament  is  followed  by  the  second  part  of  the  dialogue, 
devoted  to  just  as  time-honored  an  assault  on  the  clergy.  In 
the  manner  sanctioned  by  every  religious  satirist  since  Walter 
Map,  the  two  Franciscan  brothers  engage  in  a  specific  expos- 
ure of  the  misdeeds  of  the  English  ecclesiastics  of  the  estab- 
lished Church.  Jeffraye  speaks,  first  paying  his  respects  to 
the  bishops: 

"  As  for  preachynge  they  take  no  care 
They  wolde  se  a  course  at  an  hare 
Rather  then  to  make  a  sermon. 
To  folowe  the  chace  of  wylde  dere 
Passynge  the  tyme  with  ioly  chere 
Amonge  theym  all  is  common. 
To  playe  at  the  cardes  and  dyce 
Some  of  theym  are  nothynge  nyce 
Both  at  hasard  and  momchaunce. 
They  dryncke  in  gaye  golden  booles 
The  bloudde  of  povre  simple  soules 
Perisshynge  for  lacke  of  sustenaunce. 
Their  hongery  cures  they  never  teache 
Nor  will  soffre  none  wother  to  preache 
But  soche  as  can  lye  and  flatter." — 

The  secular  clergy  are  not  spared;  neither  are  the  mendi- 


190 

cant  orders,  nor  the  monasteries  and  the  monks.  Roy's  own 
order,  that  of  the  Observants,  is  condemned  utterly  and  at 
great  length.  The  cry  against  plurality  of  benefices,  especially 
strident  in  England  at  this  time,  is  not  wanting;  but  perhaps 
the  only  distinctly  new  charge  against  the  clergy  in  this  long 
and  severe  arraignment  is  that  of  betrayal  of  confessions. 
Hence,  viewed  merely  as  an  attack  on  the  clergy,  the  Satire, 
though  lively  and  vigorous  enough  with  its  mingling  of  humor 
and  invective,  connects  itself  with  its  own  perennial  class, 
which  had  flourished  through  the  three  hundred  years  pre- 
ceding the  Lutheran  reformation. 

The  tone  of  Rede  Me  and  Be  Nott  Wrothe  is  marked  by 
bitter  invective,  thoroughly  English  and  at  times  as  harsh  as 
that  of  Skelton,  but  far  superior  to  that  of  most  religious  sa- 
tire. Yet  there  is  much  irony — the  very  antithesis  of  invective, 
tremendous  sarcasm,  and  some  telling  burlesque.  The  satire 
carries  a  strange  conviction  of  truth-telling,  though  the  tone 
towards  Wolsey  has  a  ring  of  personal  resentment. 

Through  all  its  thirty-three*hundred  lines  of  dialogue,  Rede 
Me  and  Be  Nott  Wrothe  employs  a  consistent  verse-scheme, 
rhyming  a  a  b  c  c  b,  with  four  accents  to  the  line,  regularly, 
but  sometimes  three  accents.  The  verse  is  light,  and 
suits  the  material.  Its  unity  of  theme  and  its  consistent  struc- 
ture render  the  poem  readable.  Violent  as  it  is,  this  polemic 
is  not  dull;  and  with  its  sufficient  humor  and  thoroughly 
destructive  tone,  it  very  well  merits  the  designation  of  Satire. 
It  is  the  result  of  a  spiritual  revolution,  and  was  well  calcu- 
lated to  further  that  revolution,  called  forth  as  it  was  by  a 
crying  need  and  answering  a  popular  appeal.  Almost  need- 
less to  say,  in  form,  in  matter,  and  in  spirit,  Rede  Me  and  Be 
Nott  Wrothe  bears  no  trace  of  classical  influence.27  The  allu- 
sions in  the  poem  are  so  far  unclassical  that  they  relate  wholly 
to  contemporary  religious  affairs,  after  the  manner  of  the 
polemic  Satire.  The  Christian  reaction  speaks  in  every  line, 
but  nothing  of  the  pagan  Renaissance.  What  is  old,  is  of  the 
Middle  Ages;  what  is  new,  is  of  the  Protestant  Reformation. 

27  See  supra,  p.  15  f. 


191 

Appearing  about  the  same  time  with  the  Rede  me  and  Be 
Nott  Wrothe,  and  quite  possibly  by  the  same  authors,  is  a 
Protestant  tract  that  goes  under  the  name  of  A  Proper  Dia- 
logue Between  a  Gentleman  and  a  Husbandman.291  This  som- 
ber and  severe  production  seems  to  have  been  written  for  the 
purpose  of  giving  to  Protestantism  the  dignity  of  age  by  con- 
necting it  with  Lollardry.  An  address  to  the  reader  in  ten 
rime  royal  stanzas,  very  similar  in  every  respect  to  the  inter- 
lude in  Rede  me  and  Be  Nott  Wrothe,  introduces  us  to  the 
dialogue.  This  is  opened  by  the  gentleman.  In  several  stan- 
zas, written  in  rime  royal,  he  relates  his  hard  fortune  at  the 
hands  of  the  clergy,  and  tells  us  how  estates  that  are  right- 
fully his  have  been  given  away  by  his  ancestors  in  return  for 
masses  promised  by  the  priests.  The  husbandman  replies  in 
the  meter  of  Rede  Me  and  Be  Nott  Wrothe;  and  this  verse 
is  retained  throughout  the  remainder  of  the  dialogue.  If  the 
gentleman  has  suffered  the  loss  of  his  patrimony,  the  husband- 
man has  been  ruined  by  extortionate  rents — a  strange  accusa- 
tion, as  the  clergy  were  notoriously  easy  landlords.  Com- 
plaints against  the  avarice  of  the  clergy  continue  throughout 
the  piece,  developing  mainly  the  theme  of  Roy  and  Barlow's 
Satire,  but  emphasizing  the  economic  aspect.  We  are  told  of 
the  hatred  felt  by  the  clergy  for  the  New  Testament  in  Eng- 
lish, of  the  reasons  for  this  hatred,  and  of  the  burning  of  the 
New  Testament  in  London.  Clerical  immorality  is  touched 
upon,  and  the  historical  references  carry  us  back  to  Sir  John 
Oldcastle  and  the  persecution  of  the  Lollards  under  Henry  V. 
The  significance  of  the  Proper  Dialogue  lies  largely  in  the 
attempt  to  give  historical  continuity  to  the  reformatory  move- 
ment, but  also  in  the  insistence  upon  the  economic  aspect  of 
monastic  proprietorship.  This  latter  is  a  note  strangely  at 
variance  with  the  almost  universal  cry  against  the  enclosures 
and  evictions  that  multiplied  so  largely  after  the  dissolution 
of  the  monasteries. 

Doctor  Double- Ale29  a  highly  humorous  and  at  times  vitu- 
perative Satire,  written  in  five  hundred  and  twenty  lines  of 

28  Arber's  English  Reprints,  2,  125. 

29  Early  Popular  Poetry,  3,  303  f. 


192 

Skeltonical  verse,  is  distinctly  of  the  Reformation,  although  it 
does  not  attack  the  doctrines  of  the  church.  Written  prob- 
ably between  1530  and  1545,  this  is  virtually  the  ecclesiastical 
Satire  of  the  Goliardic  school,  though  more  humorous  and  far 
more  vital  in  its  characterization.  The  writer,  with  exceeding 
unction  and  zest,  limits  himself  to  describing  the  character 
and  habits  of  a  priest  who  is  a  confirmed  toper  and  who  totally 
neglects  his  parochial  duties.  He  is  a  great  favorite  with  the 
ale-wives,  whose  chief  customer  he  is,  and  he  usually  makes 
the  round  of  all  the  ale-houses.  When  he  sticks  to  one,  there 
is  trouble: 

"  For  sometime  he  wyll  go 
To  one,  and  to  no  mo, 
Then  wyll  the  hole  route 
Upon  that  one  cry  out, 
And    say   she   doth   them   wronge, 
To  kepe  him  all  daye  longe 
Ffrom  commyng  them  amonge." 

But  Doctor  Double-Ale  satirizes  only  one  order  of  the 
clergy.  In  the  Image  of  Hypocrisy,  written  about  1533,  we 
have  a  purely  religious  satire,  attacking  the  whole  ecclesias- 
tical hierarchy.  This  ballad  exists  only  in  manuscript.  Its 
two  thousand  five  hundred  and  seventy-six  Skeltonical  lines 
furnish  such  a  terrific  arraignment  of  every  clerical  order  and 
hurl  such  floods  of  vitriol  upon  the  offending  clergy  that  it 
becomes  highly  significant,  and  characteristic  of  its  period.  It 
must  have  been  written  by  some  extreme  Protestant,  and, 
though  on  the  opposite  side,  corresponds  in  its  tone  to  the 
Skeltonical  Replycacion.  Argument  is  here  replaced  by  abuse 
and  rank  invective,  which  now  and  again  loses  itself  in  "  sound 
and  fury,  signifying  nothing."  Such  Billingsgate,  imitating 
Skelton's  worst  features,  is  only  too  characteristic  of  this  new 
period  of  religious  strife.  But  The  Image  of  Hypocrisy, 
while  far  too  diffuse,  is  sufficiently  entertaining.30 

The  poem  is  divided  into  four  parts.  Part  I  contains  a  gen- 
eral denunciation  of  the  clergy.  Their  treatment  of  so-called 
heretics  is  dwelt  upon : 

80 Ballads  from  Manuscripts,  i,  181  ;  The  Works  of  John  Skelton,  2,  413. 


193 

"  A  fagott  for  his  backe, 
or,  Take  him  to  the  Racke, 
And  drowne  hymne  in  a  sacke, 
Or  burne  hymne  on    (a)   stake, 
lo,  thus  they  vndertake 
The  trothe  false  to  make." 

Part  II  is  directed  against  the  Bishops,  the  Pope,  and  the 
Cardinals.  The  Pope  is  the  Antichrist  of  Rome;  the  Sire  of 
Sin ;  a  Crocodile ;  the  Devil's  priest  from  whom  all  evils  spring. 
Part  III  is  against  the  preachers.  "  Now  we  have  a  knight 
(Sir  Thomas  More)  with  his  apology  for  the  prelacv.  He 
helps  to  bring  simple  innocent  men  to  death  [here  follows 
another  reference  to  the  persecution  at  Paul's  Cross]  : 

"  And  so  the  innocent, 
for  feare  to  be  brent, 
Must  suffer  checke  and  checke, 
his  faccott  on  his  necke, 
Not  for  his  life  to  quecke, 
But  stande  vpp,  like  a  bosse, 
In  sight  at  paules  crosse." 

Part  IV  attacks  the  many  orders  of  the  popish  clergy,  monks, 
and  friars.  "  You  are  beasts  of  Belial,  yet  you  would  have 
us  call  you  '  fathers  angelical '  " : 

"  In  Councells  myschevous, 
In  musters  monstrous, 
In  skulkings  insidicious, 
Vnchast  and  lecherous, 
In  excess  outragious, — " 

The  Image  of  Hypocrisy  in  its  form,  as  has  been  said,  shows 
the  baleful  influence  of  Skelton.  It  is  by  far  the  most  elab- 
orate religious  Satire  of  its  time. 

Some  ten  years  later,  toward  the  close  of  Henry  VIII's 
reign,  the  Reformation  tract  known  as  John  Bon  and  Mast 
Person,31  a  dialogue  in  one  hundred  and  sixty-five  lines,  fur- 
nishes a  fine  contribution  to  the  Reformatory  satire  of  this 
period.  The  abundant  humor  of  this  argumentative  dialogue 
furnishes  a  delightful  contrast  to  the  tone  of  most  religious 
satire.  John  Bon,  the  ploughman,  involves  the  parson  in  a 

11  Early  Popular  Poetry,  4,  3  f. 


194 

discussion  about  the  Mass,  in  which,  with  apparent  artless- 
ness,  he  draws  the  priest  into  all  kinds  of  absurdities. 

But  the  Satire  of  the  Reformation  was  not  one-sided,  nor 
was  invective  the  weapon  of  the  Protestants  alone.  We  find 
preserved  in  Dr.  Furnivall's  collection  of  manuscript  ballads  a 
poem  representing  the  conservative  side  of  religious  contro- 
versy. Through  forty-six  six-line  stanzas  in  the  form  of  a 
popular  ballad,  the  writer  inveighs  against  the  heresy  which 
sprang  from  the  devil  and  is  infecting  many  of  God's  people.32 
"  Luther  is  responsible  for  it  all — that  German  dragon,  who 
plots  against  all  true  Christianity,  despises  the  priesthood,  and 
strives  to  infect  Englishmen  with  such  damnable  doctrines. 
These  heretics  contend  that  holy  oil  is  no  better  than  butter 
for  anointing,  that  the  clergy  may  marry,  and  stand  for  other 
abominable  heresies  that  lead  to  damnation."  Without  humor 
and  without  literary  merit  as  it  is,  the  significance  of  this  un- 
mitigated invective  lies  in  its  popular  tone  and  use  of  strictly 
contemporary  material. 

Skelton's  influence  again  appears  a  few  years  later,  towards 
the  close  of  Henry's  reign,  in  A  Poor  Help,  some  three  hundred 
and  sixty  lines  of  invective  against  the  Reformation.23  The 
title  of  the  poem  is  only  too  indicative  of  its  nature ;  for  while 
it  reviews  the  various  arguments  of  the  reformers  and  attempts 
reply,  its  theme  is  without  unity  and  its  tone  without  humor. 
Had  The  Image  of  Hypocrisy  ever  been  printed,  one  might 
think  this  a  reply  to  that  Protestant  tract.  "  Will  none  in  all 
this  land  take  in  hand  these  fellows,  like  the  sand  in  number, 
who  meddle  with  the  gospel,  and  tell  false  tales  against  our  holy 
prelacy,  and  the  dignity  of  the  holy  church,  saying  it  is  but 
popistry  and  hypocrisy?" 

The  Reformation  set  in  motion,  however  unwittingly,  by 
Henry  VIII,  grew  and  expanded  in  the  reign  of  Edward  VI. 
What  had  been  at  first  but  a  break  with  Rome,  without  any 
significant  change  of  doctrine  or  polity,  became  rampant  Luth- 
eranism  a  few  years  later  under  the  fostering  care  of  Arch- 
bishop Cranmer  and  the  Duke  of  Somerset.  From  the  litera- 

81  Ballads  from  Manuscripts,   i,   275. 
23  Early  Popular  Poetry,  3,  249  f. 


195 

ture  of  the  time,  it  is  very  apparent  that  these  violent  religions 
changes  were  unwelcome  to  a  vast  majority  of  the  people.  The 
Mass,  which  had  been  abolished,  the  monasteries,  which  had 
been  supressed,  the  Catholic  doctrines,  which  had  been  swept 
away  by  Lutheranism,  all  were  still  held  dear  by  the  conserva- 
tives, who  constituted  a  very  respectable  minority  of  the  people. 
However  dominant  the  Protestant  party  might  be  at  Court, 
it  was  by  no  means  so  influential  among1  the  people  at  large. 
Religious  conditions  were  far  from  settled ;  the  Reformers  still 
found  it  necessary  to  contend  vigorously  against  a  powerful  and 
active  opposition.  It  is  not  strange  that  under  these  conditions 
the  satire  both  for  and  against  the  Reformation  should  continue 
through  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.  It  was  merely  a  continua- 
tion of  what  preceded  it,  and  presented  nothing  new  in  either 
subject-matter  or  in  literary  form. 

Sometime  in  this  period  A  Ballad  of  Luther,  the  Pope,  a  Car- 
dinal and  a  Husbandman,  in  which  each  character  speaks  three 
eight-line  stanzas,  utters  a  plea  for  the  reformers.34  The  Car- 
dinal and  the  Pope,  are,  of  course,  satirized,  while  Luther  and 
the  Husbandman  get  the  best  of  the  argument.  The  Husband- 
man praises  God,  who  has  given  a  fall  to  those  extortionate 
wolves,  the  Roman  clergy.  Luther  addresses  the  Pope  as  Anti- 
christ, who  has  usurped  political  power  and  juggled  with  God's 
word,  has  flattered  the  prince  but  threatened  the  peasant.  The 
Pope  does  not  excuse  his  deeds,  but  claims  he  is  above  both  law 
and  scripture : 

"  As  for  scripture,  I  am  above  it ; 
Am  not  I  God's  hye  vicare? 
Shulde  I  be  bounde  to  followe  it, 
As  the  carpenter  his  ruler  ?  " 

Protestantism  became  the  fashion  at  the  court  of  Edward  VI. 
Religious  discussion  was  a  favorite  way  of  passing  the 
time.  Concerning  matters  of  faith,  courtiers  spoke  with  as 
much  assurance  as  expert  theologians.  Edward's  corrupt  court 
was  thronged  with  members  of  the  nobility, — "  upstarts,"  who 
moved  in  the  passing  show  and  professed  the  Protestant  faith 
merely  because  it  was  fashionable.  Under  a  surface  of  religi- 

34  Percy's  Reliques  (1847),  p.  117  f. 


196 

cms  zeal  lay  an  abyss  of  corruption.  How  superficial  and  in- 
sincere was  the  religious  tone  of  the  court,  the  reaction  a  few 
years  later  under  Queen  Mary  only  too  plainly  showed. 

It  is  with  such  conditions  as  these  that  Little  John  Nobody** 
deals,  in  eight  eight-line  stanzas  of  alliteration  and  rhyme, 
written  probably  towards  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Edward  VI. 
The  author  passes  along  and  finds  one  making  a  song  about  the 
condition  of  the  Faith.  This  man  says  his  name  is  John 
Nobody,  and  he  dare  not  speak  out.  "  Gay  gallants  pretend 
to  discuss  the  Gospel  as  sage  as  Solomon.  It  is  meet,  to  be 
sure,  that  all  should  have  the  Gospel  in  mind;  but  is  it  meet 
that  all  should  discuss  it  and  still  live  in  lust?" 

"  For  bribery  was  never  so  great,  since  born  was  our  Lord, 
And  whoredom  was  never  les  hated,  sith  Christ  harrowed  hel, 
And  poor  men  are  so  sore  punished  commonly  through  the 

world, 

That  it  would  grieve  any  one,  that  good  is,  to  hear  tel. 
For  al  the  homilies  and  good  books,  yet  their  hearts  be  so 

quel, 
That  if  a  man   do  amisse,   with   mischief e  they   wil  him 

wreake : 

The  fashion  of  these  new  fellows  it  is  so  vile  and  fell ; 
But  that  I  little  John  Nobody  dare  not  speake." 

Not  without  humor  and  rather  effective  in  form,  Little  John 
Nobody  is  interesting  as  a  side-light  cast  on  the  religious  con- 
dition of  the  times  by  some  cynical  contemporary. 

Of  such  quality  is  the  verse  satire  of  the  English  Reforma- 
tion. It  was  an  age  of  revolution,  not  only  in  religion  and 
politics,  but  in  literature  as  well.  Old  forms  were  disregarded 
and  thrown  aside.  Religious  satire  of  any  period  shows  con- 
tempt for  literary  form,  and  it  rarely  possesses  literary  merit. 
It  is  didactic  and  reformatory.  It  abuses  rather  than  ridicules, 
prefers  invective  to  humor,  and  would  rather  knock  a  foe  down 
with  a  cudgel  than  pierce  him  with  a  rapier.  All  these  char- 
acteristics appear  in  the  satire  of  the  period  from  1520  to  1550. 
Such  work  can  have  but  little  value  as  a  contribution  to  the 
Satire,  and  is  interesting  only  in  the  light  it  casts  upon  the  re- 
ligious temper  of  its  period,  and  its  exhibition  of  the  English 
tendency  to  speak  freely  and  vigorously  upon  religious  matters. 

**  Ibid.,  p.    119. 


CHAPTER   VII 
SIR  DAVID  LYNDSAY  AND  THE  SATIRIC  PLAY 

Sir  David  Lyndsay. — His  life. — Lyndsay  the  man. — His  poetry. — His 
satire. — Lyndsay  as  a  satirist  of  the  Reformation. — The  Reformation  in 
Scotland. — Lyndsay's  The  Dream. — The  Complaint. — The  Testament  of  the 
Papingo. — His  minor  Satires. — A  Satire  of  the  Three  Estates. — Its  subject- 
matter. — Its  tone. — Its  first  part. — Its  abstractions. — The  interlude. — 
Realism  and  Burlesque  in  The  Three  Estates. — The  second  part. — John  the 
Common  Weal. — The  didactic  element  in  The  Three  Estates. — Its  effect. — 
Lyndsay's  contribution  to  the  Satire. — Dramatic  satire  in  England. — The 
Interludes  and  Moralities. — Confusion  of  terms. — Religious  and  social 
satire. — Satire  of  low  life. — Satire  in  the  Miracle  Plays. — Skelton's 
Magnyfycence. — Heywood's  Interludes. — Their  burlesque  elements. — Bale. 
— His  Moralities. — His  Kyng  Johan. — Other  Moralities  and  Interludes. — 
Nature. — Respublica. — New  Custom. — Incidental  satire  in  other  plays. — 
Lost  polemic  plays. — Elizabethan  dialogues. — Value  and  significance  of  this 
dramatic  satire. 

I 

The  work  of  Sir  David  Lyndsay,  Scotchman  and  Reformer, 
while  little  influencing  subsequent  satire  in  English,  is  still 
extremely  significant.  Above  all  others  writing  in  English, 
Lyndsay  is  generally  accepted  as  the  distinctive  satirist  of  the 
Reformation.  His  work  shows  a  combination  of  the  qualities 
of  Gower,  Dunbar,  and  Skelton :  of  Gower,  in  moral  earnest- 
ness; of  Dunbar,  in  burlesque  humor;  and  of  Skelton,  in  power 
of  invective.  While  no  great  attention  can  be  paid  here  to 
the  history  of  satire  north  of  the  Border,  yet  Lyndsay,  in 
his  own  period,  is  so  great  a  figure  that  the  same  reasons  which 
led  to  some  mention  of  Dunbar  must  make  us  pause  for  con- 
sideration of  this  vigorous  and  versatile  satirist.1 

The  life  of  Sir  David  Lyndsay  covered  sixty-five  years, 
from  1490  to  1555,  a  stormy  and  momentous  epoch  in  the 

1  The  Poetical  Works  of  Sir  David  Lyndsay,  ed.  Laing,  2  TO!S.,  Edin- 
burgh, 1871. 

197 


198 

history  of  Scotland — the  reigns  of  James  IV  and  James  V 
and  the  regency  during  the  minority  of  Mary  Stuart.  Lynd- 
say's  life  was  as  eventful  and  busy  as  the  times  in  which  he 
lived.  Poet  as  he  was,  poet-laureate  of  the  Scottish  court,  he 
was  yet — as  Lyon  King  of  Arms,  head  of  the  college  of 
heralds,  play-fellow  of  James  V,  ambassador  to  various  king- 
doms,— even  more  a  man  of  affairs  than  a  man  of  letters. 
Lyndsay  lived  through  the  disaster  of  Flodden,  French  in- 
trigues during  the  reign  of  James  V,  the  vacillating  regency 
of  the  Duke  of  Albany,  the  feud  of  the  Douglasses  against 
the  Hamiltons,  and  the  murder  of  Cardinal  Beaton.  He  wit- 
nessed the  continual  border  wars  with  England,  saw  Scot- 
land rent  with  domestic  discord,  welcomed  the  introduction 
of  the  New  Testament,  and  deplored  the  martyrdom  of  Pat- 
rick Hamilton.  He  went  as  ambassador  to  Charles  V  in  1531, 
and  again  in  1535;  as  ambassador  to  France  in  1536.  He 
participated  in  the  marriage  ceremonies  of  James  V,  first  to 
Magdalene  of  France,  then  to  Mary  of  Guise;  represented  his 
native  town  of  Cupar  as  a  member  of  Parliament ;  became  the 
friend  of  John  Knox,  and  encouraged  him  to  preach,  though 
himself  always  a  Catholic;  and,  finally,  died  in  1555,  behold- 
ing the  dawn  of  a  better  day  for  Scotland. 

Lyndsay  as  man,  sterling,  strong,  courageous,  lover  of  Scot- 
land, hater  of  immorality,  hypocrisy,  and  oppression,  friend 
of  the  common  people  and  born  reformer,  is  far  more  interest- 
ing than  Lyndsay  as  poet;  but  the  qualities  of  the  man  him- 
self and  the  times  in  which  he  lived  interest  us  here  only  so  far 
as  they  are  mirrored  in  Lyndsay's  satirical  verse.  Given  the 
man  and  the  times,  it  was  inevitable  that  Lyndsay's  poetry 
should  be  intensely  practical  and  show  little  imaginative  qual- 
ity. And  such  it  is,  being  almost  wholly  didactic  and  satirical. 
With  a  copious  vocabulary  and  an  almost  fatal  fluency  in 
rhyme,  but  devoid  of  the  high  imaginative  qualities  that  mark 
the  true  poet,  he  is  inspired  by  a  reformatory  purpose.  And  in 
this  respect  Lyndsay  stands  in  strong  contrast  to  Dunbar,  both 
as  man  and  as  satirist.  Dunbar's  satirical  verse,  as  we  have 
seen,  was  born  of  no  such  motive,  for  it  was  but  the  com- 
ment of  a  man  of  the  world  upon  the  life  around  him,  with- 


199 

out  the  idea  of  making  that  world  better  in  any  degree.  Lynd- 
say,  without  Dunbar's  poetical  genius,  is  far  more  earnest  and 
sincere.  He  apparently  writes  with  but  one  motive:  to  de- 
stroy the  wrong  and  upbuild  the  right.  In  his  earnestness 
and  practicality,  he  reminds  us  of  the  English  Gower;  but  he 
is  unlike  Gower  in  that  a  copious  humor  illumines  every- 
thing he  writes. 

Lyndsay  wrote  for  the  common  people,  and  he  earned  a  pop- 
ularity perhaps  accorded  to  no  other  Scottish  poet  save  Burns. 
His  style  and  vocabulary  are  suited  to  the  popular  taste. 
The  coarseness  that  colors  so  much  of  his  verse  made  a  popular 
appeal.  Whatever  may  be  the  literary  qualities  of  his  work, 
there  resulted  from  this  popular  appeal  a  tremendous  effective- 
ness. This  work  shows  no  literary  inheritance,  not  a  shadow 
of  classicism — thoroughly  native  to  the  man  and  to  the  soil, 
it  springs  spontaneously  from  public  needs  to  rectify  public 
abuses.  Lyndsay  was  the  voice  of  all  Scotland  as  no  Scottish 
poet  had  ever  been  before. 

The  range  of  his  satirical  material  is  remarkably  wide  and 
varied.  As  he  looks  about  him  over  his  native  land,  threatened 
by  foreign  foes,  rent  by  domestic  discord,  oppressed  by  a  selfish 
nobility,  with  corruption  permeating  every  estate  of  the  realm, 
Church  and  State  in  the  grasp  of  unscrupulous  prelates  and 
ministers,  the  reformatory  spirit  within  him  is  stirred  to  utter- 
ance. It  speaks  sometimes  in  direct  satire,  sometimes  in  in- 
vective, sometimes  in  burlesque,  arraigning  and  rebuking  a 
thousand  abuses  in  church,  society,  and  state.  Lindsay's  di- 
rect satire  is  keen,  his  invective  scorching,  his  burlesque  ex- 
ceedingly humorous.  While  almost  wholly  of  historical  in- 
terest, his  satirical  and  didactic  poems  become  invaluable  as 
a  criticism  of  his  times. 

We  have  said  that  Lyndsay  is  known  as  the  satirist  of  the 
Scottish  Reformation.  If  this  means  that  he  attacked  the 
fundamental  creed  and  polity  of  the  church,  the  epithet  is 
largely  misapplied.  It  is  true  he  assailed  every  imaginable 
form  of  clerical  abuse,  arraigned  entire  the  Roman  hierarchy, 
ridiculed  pilgrimages,  penances,  and  image  worship.  But  Skel- 
ton  had  done  the  same;  and  this  was  the  common  material 


200 

of  a  host  of  Lyndsay's  satirical  predecessors.  In  Lyndsay's 
poetry  there  is  no  attack  on  the  creed  or  the  Mass,  no  advocacy 
of  the  abolition  of  popery  such  as  marked  the  distinctive  Satire 
of  the  Reformation,  as  seen  for  instance  in  Rede  me  and  be 
Nott  Wrothe.  In  the  Satire  of  the  Three  Estates,  however, 
the  polity  of  the  church  is  called  into  question;  and  there  is 
reason  to  believe  that  had  Lyndsay  lived  ten  years  longer  his 
satire  would  have  been  as  distinctly  of  the  Protestant  Refor- 
mation as  any  written  in  English.  Even  as  it  is,  his  satiri- 
cal verse  contains  so  many  allusions  to  the  ecclesiastical  af- 
fairs of  this  epoch  that  it  cannot  be  well  understood  or  ap- 
preciated without  reference  to  the  Scottish  Reformation. 

The  Reformation  in  Scotland  was  mainly  due  to  a  con- 
dition of  the  church  even  more  scandalous  than  that  exist- 
ing at  the  same  time  in  England.  Those  evils  that  had  af- 
fected the  church  for  generations  were  growing  intolerable. 
The  sale  of  benefices,  corrupt  morals  of  the  clergy,  plural 
livings,  undue  interference  of  churchmen  in  State  affairs,  had 
generated  an  anti-clerical  spirit  that  in  Lyndsay's  time  was 
beginning  to  find  determined  expression.  The  Reformation, 
then,  arose  from  an  attempt  not  so  much  to  secure  doctrinal 
reform  or  to  keep  out  Papal  influence,  as  to  purify  the  church 
from  within.  The  clergy,  presumptuous  and  arrogant,  re- 
sented popular  criticism,  and  persecuted  their  accusers  by  fire. 
Such  persecution  resulted  in  still  more  widespread  and  bitter 
accusations  and  calls  for  reform.  Finally,  opposition  to  French 
influence  gave  the  Scottish  Reformation  a  political  bearing 
that  probably  did  more  than  anything  else  to  speed  the  cause 
of  the  reformers. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Lyndsay,  at  least  as  much  as 
any  man  in  Scotland,  was  in  sympathy  with  this  reformatory- 
spirit.  His  verse  is  one  great  cry  for  reform,  echoing  with 
the  nation's  social,  political,  and  religious  strife.  His  literary 
work  begins  with  The  Dreme  in  1528  and  ends  with  The 
Monarchie  in  1553;  though  his  strictly  satirical  work  closes 
with  the  Satire  of  the  Three  Estates,  about  1540.  Most  of 
his  poems  are  medleys  of  satire  and  didacticism.  The  Dreme, 
written  in  eleven  hundred  and  thirty- four  lines,  in  Chaucerian 


201 

stanzas,  and  addressed  as  an  exhortation  to  the  young  King 
James  V,  comprises  a  vision  of  Hell,  Heaven,  and  Scotland. 
In  the  good  old  medieval  fashion,  the  poet  dreams,  and  is  con- 
ducted by  Dame  Remembrance  into  Hell,  where  he  sees  Popes, 
Emperors,  and  Kings,  conquerors  who  are  despoilers  of  other 
people's  property,  cardinals  and  archbishops  in  their  prelatical 
robes,  abbots,  and  "  false,  flattering  friars."  After  the  voyage 
through  hell  and  the  empyrean,  the  poet  looks  upon  Scotland, 
and  inquires  the  cause  of  her  poverty  and  distress.  He  is 
told  by  his  guide  that  these  arise  from  the  unpatriotic  and 
selfish  conduct  of  the  great  nobles.  John  the  Common  Weal, 
who  is  about  to  leave  his  country,  explains  his  reasons  for  de- 
parture and  his  own  ragged  habit,  by  further  reflections  upon 
the  state  of  the  realm.  His  comments  are  very  direct  and 
severe.  The  spiritual  estate,  eaten  with  vice,  disdains  him; 
the  nobility  are  careful  only  of  their  own  ends.  In  this  al- 
legorical form  of  narrative,  though  Lyndsay  indulges  in  no 
personalities,  his  political  satire  on  the  general  condition  of 
Scotland  is  very  fearless  and  direct.  Never  were  abstractions 
more  effective.  The  figure  of  John  the  Common  Weal  gives 
dignity  to  the  poem,  which  forms  a  worthy  prelude  to  the 
Satire  of  the  Three  Estates. 

Political  satire  and  social  satire  are  combined  in  The  Com- 
playnt  of  Schir  David  Lyndesay  to  the  Kingis  Grace  (1529). 
This  is  a  didactic  poem,  written  chiefly  in  tetrameter  verse, 
reflecting  largely  upon  the  vices  of  the  clergy,  and  advising 
the  king  as  to  the  religious,  political,  and  social  disorders  of 
the  country.  Severe,  without  humor,  but  with  a  mighty 
strength  of  attack,  it  is  very  much  alive,  as  witness  this  one 
stanza  on  the  corrupt  practices  of  the  temporal  and  spiritual 
lords : 

"  Thay  lordis  tuke  no  more  regaird, 
But  quho  mycht  purches  best  rewaird: 
Sum  to  thair  friendis  gat  benefyceis, 
And  uther  sum  gat  Byschopreis. 
For  every  lord,  as  he  thocht  best, 
Brocht  in  ane  bird  to  fyll  the  nest; 
To  be  ane  wacheman  to  his  marrow, 
Thay  gan  to  draw  at  the  cat  harrow. 


202 

The  proudest  Prelatis  of  the  Kirk 
Was  faine  to  hyde  thame  in  the  myrk, 
That  tyme,  so  failyeit  wes  thair  sycht. 
Sen  syne  thay  may  nocht  thole  the  lycht 
Of  Christis  trew  Gospell  to  be  sene, 
So  blyndit  is  thair  corporall  ene 
With  wardly  lustis  sensuall." — 

Following  The  Complaynt  to  the  King,  religious  and  social 
satire  are  combined  in  The  Testament  and  Complaynt  of  our 
Soverane  Lordis  Papyngo,  a  partly  didactic  and  partly  satirical 
poem,  in  Chaucerian  stanza,  on  court  follies  and  clerical  irregu- 
larities. The  Testament,  an  old  literary  form,  had  time  and 
again  on  the  Continent  been  used  for  satirical  purposes.  In 
English,  though  "  Testaments  "  galore  had  appeared  through  the 
preceding  two  centuries,  Lyndsay  seems  the  first  to  employ  the 
form  as  a  vehicle  for  satire.  The  parrot,  or  "  papingo,"  ap- 
peared frequently  as  a  court  bird  in  the  European  literature 
of  the  Renaissance.  Skelton  in  his  Speke  Parrot  makes  the 
wise  bird  the  mouth-piece  of  his  satire.  Now,  for  the  first 
time,  a  poet  uses  the  form  of  the  Testament  together  with  the 
parrot  as  the  vehicle  of  his  satire,  and  we  have  the  Testament 
of  the  Papyngo.  We  are  reminded  of  Skelton's  Speke  Parrot, 
for  the  present  poem  is  very  much  the  same  kind  of  medley. 

After  her  first  epistle — a  purely  didactic  epistle — to  the  king 
— to  whom  she  leaves  her  "  trew  unfeinyeit  hart,"  the  Papingo 
indites  a  second  to  the  courtiers,  a  grave  admonition  against 
the  perils  of  the  court  and  a  homily  on  the  reverse  of  fortune 
and  the  fall  of  pride,  as  illustrated  in  the  unhappy  deaths  of 
the  last  four  Scottish  kings,  the  career  of  Wolsey,  and  the 
death  of  Angus.  The  religious  satire  begins  with  the  last 
part  of  the  poem  and  runs  through  seventy-six  stanzas  in  the 
form  of  an  allegory.  The  dying  parrot  wishes  confessors, 
and  the  Magpie,  who  is  a  regular  canon  and  prior,  the  Raven, 
a  black  monk,  and  the  Kite,  a  friar,  come  to  her  side.  The 
parrot  is  suspicious  of  them  all:  she  has  seen  the  Kite  steal 
a  chicken.  But  she  has  to  accept  them  as  religious  counsellors 
and  executors,  since  she  can  do  no  better.  Before  dying,  she 
sets  forth  the  reasons  why  she  holds  the  clergy  "  so  abomin- 


THE 

UNIVERSITY 

C  i- 


203 

able,"  and  recounts  the  growth  of  the  corruption  of  the  priest- 
hood and  the  sensuality  and  avarice  of  the  church.  The 
preaching  of  the  begging  friars  alone  preserves  faith  among 
the  clergy.  After  this  long  and  severe  rebuke,  the  parrot 
makes  her  will  and  testament,  sending  unto  her  "  Soverane 
Kyng "  her  heart.  To  the  owl  she  leaves  her  green  dress ; 
to  the  pelican,  her  beak ;  her  voice  to  the  cuckoo,  and  her  elo- 
quence to  the  goose.  Her  bones  she  orders  to  be  burnt  with 
those  of  the  phoenix ;  the  rest  of  her  she  leaves  to  the  officiating 
clergy,  whom  she  now  appoints  her  executors.  She  dies,  and 
after  this  event  her  friends  of  the  clergy  fight  fiercely  over  her 
remains. 

Though  characteristically  without  personalities,  the  Pa- 
pyngo  forms  one  of  Lyndsay's  strongest  attacks  on  clerical 
corruption.  The  form  and  conception  are  trite  enough,  but 
the  added  vitality  and  strength  mark  a  new  era  in  the  Satire. 

Genuinely  satirical,  with  abundant  humor,  is  Ane  Supplicatioun 
in  Contemptioun  of  Syde  Taillis,  written  in  1536.  This  is  in 
the  form  of  an  epistle  to  the  king ;  in  length,  one  hundred  and 
sixty- four  lines  of  rough  tetrameter  verse — "  The  cause  the 
matter  bene  so  vile,  it  may  nocht  have  an  ornate  style."  The 
Supplication  is  a  rather  coarse  but  really  humorous  attack  on 
fashions  in  dress,  a  light  but  genuine  little  piece  of  social  satire. 

We  have  again  in  The  Complaynt  of  Bagsche  the  Kingis 
auld  Hound,  a  court  Satire  against  the  vices  of  the  courtiers ; 
in  Kitteis  Confessioun,  a  frank  Satire  on  the  confessional;  in 
Ane  Descriptioun  of  Pedder  Coffeis,  an  exposure  of  the  tricks 
of  the  peddler  of  that  time.  Finally,  in  The  Monarchie 
(1554),  an  elaborate  poem  in  6333  lines,  we  find,  among  much 
else,  an  advocacy  of  the  vernacular  for  poetical,  religious,  and 
legal  purposes ;  and  an  attack  on  pilgrimages  and  the  worship 
of  images,  on  corruption  at  Rome,  on  rack-rents  of  the  lords 
and  barons,  on  the  injustice  of  both  civil  and  ecclesiastical 
courts,  and  on  the  extravagant  dress  of  women. 

But  for  our  present  purpose,  all  of  Lyndsay's  previous  work 
forms  merely  the  introduction  to  his  Satire  of  the  Three 
Estates?  written  at  some  uncertain  date,  but  produced  before 

2  The  full  title  is  Ane  Pleasant  Satyre  of  the  Thrie  Estaitis  in  com- 
mendatioun  of  Vertew  and  vituperatioun  of  Vyce. 


204 

king  and  court  at  Linlithgow  in  1540.  It  is  a  very  long 
Morality,  written  in  Scottish  vernacular  verse,  the  only  speci- 
men of  its  kind  from  north  of  the  Tweed.  The  Satire  is  not 
only  Lyndsay's  most  elaborate  but  in  every  respect  his  most 
significant  work,  uniting  in  itself  every  phase  of  material  and 
tone  that  characterizes  his  minor  productions. 

The  range  of  its  subject-matter  is  well  nigh  universal.  The 
social  aspect  of  this  subject-matter  is  highly  significant:  it  is 
the  woes  of  the  people.  Pauper  describes  in  homely  language 
his  unjust  treatment  by  laird  and  vicar  and  his  present  miser- 
able lot;  while  John  the  Common  Weal,  a  dominating  figure, 
reviews  all  the  religious,  political,  and  social  abuses  of  Scot- 
land. Again,  the  political  phase  of  the  subject-matter  shows 
us  two  of  the  "  Three  Estates  "  selfish  and  ambitious,  bound 
by  their  vices,  the  lords  thinking  only  of  oppressing  the  poor, 
and  the  prelates  thinking  only  of  high  living.  Furthermore, 
from  the  religious  point  of  view,  Lyndsay  wishes  to  change 
somewhat  the  polity  of  the  church  as  well  as  to  reform  its 
morals.  He  unsparingly  attacks  bishops,  cardinals,  and  friars 
along  the  old  lines,  but  with  added  vigor  and  earnestness,  and 
especially  inveighs  against  plural  livings  and  absentee  clergy. 
In  addition  to  all  this,  the  Satire  of  the  Three  Estates  has  a 
moral  aspect  in  its  treatment  of  the  vicious  condition  of  all 
classes  of  society  from  king  to  peasant;  while  the  abstract 
vices  are  satirized  by  personification  in  such  figures  as  those 
of  Flattery,  Sensuality,  and  Deceit.  One  reads  in  every  line 
of  the  Satire  the  reformatory  purpose  that  inspired  it  and  the 
deep  moral  earnestness  that  spoke  through  it. 

The  Satire  of  the  Three  Estates  as  a  whole  admirably  illus- 
trates the  transition  from  the  medieval  religious  play  to  the 
Elizabethan  drama.  In  its  vast  number  of  separate  characters 
and  variety  of  topics  there  is  much  that  is  commonplace,  as 
well  as  unique  and  powerful.  With  its  genuine  satire,  invec- 
tive, didacticism,  and  burlesque,  it  forms  a  strange  medley — a 
"  cross  between  the  old  morality,  the  interlude  of  Heyward, 
the  modern  play,  and  systematic  satire."  Though  primarily 
constructive  and  thoroughly  reformatory  in  its  purpose,  the 
Satire  has  abundant  humor,  and  its  often  conventional  and 


205 

commonplace  material  is  yet  rendered  unique  by  Lyndsay's 
masterful  treatment.  "  Its  satirical  commonplace "  declares 
itself — the  corruption  of  the  clergy  was  no  new  theme  for 
satire, — but  its  local  and  contemporary  elements,  such  as  the 
wars  on  the  Border,  the  rapacity  of  the  nobility,  are  new  and 
are  native  to  the  soil.  All  topics  are  treated  effectively, 
because  treated  with  an  eye  on  the  object,  not  generally, 
but  specifically.  Medieval  in  literary  form,  showing  no 
classical  influence,  the  Satire  is  still  distinctly  of  the  Renais- 
sance in  realism  and  close  observation  of  life.  The  figures 
of  Pauper  and  John  the  Common  Weal  embody  a  strength 
of  characterization  that  makes  Lyndsay  akin  to  Langland 
and  Skelton. 

The  first  part  of  the  Satire  of  the  Three  Estates,  like  the  old 
morality,  introduces  such  conventional  figures  as  Wantonness, 
Sensuality,  Falsehood,  Deceit,  Good  Counsel,  Dame  Verity, 
and  Flattery;  but  even  here  we  find  incidental  satire,  when 
Wantonness  addresses  Rex  Humanitas  and  hits  fiercely  at  the 
immorality  of  the  clergy.3  Then,  too,  Flattery  clothes  him- 
self as  a  friar.  The  friars,  he  says,  are  free  at  every  feast; 
and  God  has  given  them  such  grace  that  Bishops  put  them  in 
their  places  to  preach  throughout  the  diocese, 

"  And  thocht  the  corne  war  never  sa  skant, 
The  gudewyfis  will  not  let  Freiris  want." 

But,  as  an  almost  entirely  new  note  in  the  morality,4  just 
here  at  the  beginning  is  introduced  the  satire  of  the  Reforma- 
tion. The  vices  warn  Humanity  against  Dame  Verity,  because 
she  bears  in  her  hand  that  heretical  and  proscribed  book, 
Tyndale's  New  Testament,  which  had  recently  crossed  the 
water  into  Scotland,  caused  the  martyrdom  of  young  Patrick 
Hamilton,  and  was  soon  to  overthrow  the  Established  Church. 
Flattery  sees  Verity: 

*  Works,  2,   121. 

*  Not  entirely  new,  apparently ;  Professor  A.  H.  Thorndike  of  Columbia 
University  calls  my  attention  to   Collier's  account  of  a  Morality  in  Latin 
and   French,   acted   before    Henry   VIII    and   Wolsey   by   the    Boys   of    St. 
Paul's  school  in  1528.     The  Morality  introduced  Luther  and  his  wife,  and 
ridiculed  the  Reformation.     The  play  is  no  longer  extant. 


206 

"  Quhat  buik  is  that,  harlot,  into  thy  hand  ? 
Out,  walloway!  this  is  the  New  Test'ment; 
In   Englisch   toung,   and   printit   in   England : 
Herisie,  herisie !  fire,  fire !  incontinent." 

Again  and  again,  through  this  part  of  the  play,  Lyndsay  re- 
verts to  his  favorite  theme,  the  gross  immorality  of  every 
order  of  the  clergy.  The  satire  is  dramatic,  indirect,  tinged 
with  irony  and  a  rather  bitter  humor.  Sensuality,  when  ex- 
pelled by  Divine  Correction  from  the  court  of  King  Humanitas, 
announces  her  intention  of  proceeding  to  Rome,  where  she  is 
sure  to  find  hospitality  among  the  princes  of  the  church : 

"  My  Lord,  I  mak  yow  supplicatioun, 
Gif  me  licence,  to  pas  againe  to  Rome ; 
Amang  the  princes  of  that  natioun, 
I  lat  yow  wit,  my  fresche  beautie  will  blume, 

War  I  amang  bischops,  and  cardinals, 

I  wald  get  gould,  silver,  and  precious  clais: 

Na  earthlie  joy,  but  my  presence,  availis." 

Chastity,  too,  banished  from  the  court,  seeks  refuge  among 
the  clergy,  but  meets  with  a  cold  reception.  The  lady  prioress, 
whom  she  first  approaches,  scornfully  bids  her  begone.  She 
passes  on  to  the  lords  of  the  spirituality,  then  to  the  Abbot  and 
the  Parson,  all  of  whom  order  her  off  on  pain  of  punishment. 
These  figures  of  the  Abbot,  the  Parson,  and  the  Spiritual 
Lords,  form  an  addition  to  the  conventional  figures  of  the  old 
Morality,  and  connect  the  Satire  of  the  Three  Estates  with 
that  newer  dramatic  form,  the  Interlude. 

In  the  interlude  which  binds  together  the  first  and  second 
parts  of  the  play,  this  religious  satire  passes  into  social,  in  the 
figures  of  Diligence,  the  Pauper,  and  the  Cardinal.  Pauper 
is  a  typical  figure,  that  of  the  Scottish  peasant,  and  his  tale 
of  woe  is  that  of  the  common  people  of  Scotland.  In  his  talk 
with  Diligence,  Pauper  tells  how  he  had  supported  his  old 
parents  with  one  horse  and  three  cows.  His  parents  died  and 
then  his  trouble  began,  for  the  laird  took  the  horse  for  a  fine, 
the  vicar  took  the  best  cow  when  the  father  died,  and  another 
on  the  death  of  the  mother;  the  wife  died  for  sorrow,  and 


207 

thereupon  the  vicar  took  the  third  cow.  Now  Pauper  with  his 
bairns  has  to  beg  for  a  living. 

Pauper's  sombre  note  is  changed  for  one  of  ludicrous  bur- 
lesque in  the  speech  of  the  Pardoner,  who  is  made  to  satirize 
himself  as  a  social,  rather  than  as  a  religious,  personage. 
Lyndsay's  Pardoner  is  a  blood  brother  to  Heywood's5  and 
Chaucer's.6  He  too  speaks  at  great  length,  advertising  his 
wares,  and  making  permanent  contribution  to  the  universal 
satire  on  public  imposters.  He  cordially  commits  to  the  Devil 
the  wicked  New  Testament,  those  that  translated  it  and  those 
that  read  it,  Martin  Luther,  Bullinger,  and  Melancthon,  and 
all  their  crew.  His  motley  assortment  of  relics  includes  the 
horn  of  a  criminal  cow,  and  a  cord  that  hanged  a  malefactor. 
So  ends  the  interlude. 

In  the  second  part  of  the  play  we  have  the  Morality  again. 
The  Three  Estates — the  spiritual  lords,  the  temporal  lords,  and 
the  burgesses — from  whom  the  Satire  takes  its  name,  figure 
here  as  bound  by  vice  and  given  over  to  every  manner  of  cor- 
ruption. Strangely  in  contrast  with  these  abstractions  is  the 
intense  realism  of  the  figures  and  speeches  of  Pauper  and  John 
the  Common  Weal.  This  satire  is  realistic  enough  and  per- 
meated with  abundant  humor,  as  when  Pauper  complains  of  the 
injustice  and  delays  of  the  Consistory  courts.  For  his  mare, 
drowned  by  a  neighbor,  he  seeks  redress  from  the  Consistory : 

"  They  gave  me  first  ane  thing,  thay  call  Citendum, 
Within  aucht  dayis,  I  gat  bot  Lybellandum, 
Within  ane  moneth,  I  gat  ad  Opponendum^ 
In  half  ane  yeir,  I  gat  Interloquendum, 
And  syne,  I  gat,  how  call  ye  it?  ad  Replicandum: 
Bot,  I  could  never  ane  word  yit  understand  him; 
And  than,  thay  gart  me  cast  out  many  plackis, 
And  gart  me  pay  for  four-and-twentie  actis: 
Bot,  or  thay  came  half  gait  to  Concludendum, 
The  Feind  ane  plack  was  left  for  to  defend  him : 
Thus,  thay  postponit  me  twa  yeir,  with  thair  traine, 

Bot  I  got  never  my  gude  gray  meir  againe." 

6  See  infra,  p.  213. 
'See  supra,  p.  101. 


208 

John  the  Common  Weal  represents  the  well-being  of  Scot- 
land. When  asked  by  Temporality  to  name  his  enemies,  he  in- 
veighs against  strong  beggars,  fiddlers,  pipers,  pardoners,  and 
especially  complains  of  feuds  among  the  lords.  The  friars, 
too,  come  in  for  wholesale  condemnation.  But  this  is  not  all : 
severe  judgment  on  the  poor,  while  the  rich  escape  through 
bribery;  faults  in  both  consistory  and  secular  courts;  the 
tributes  of  rack-rent  and  heriot,  which  fall  so  heavily  on  the 
poor  cotter — all  these  furnish  material  for  reprehension  in  the 
mouth  of  John  the  Common  Weal : 

"  Grandmerces,  then,  I  sail  nocht  spair 
First,  to  compleine  on  the  Vickair: 
The  pure  Cottar,  lykand  to  die. 
Haifand  young  infants,  twa,  or  thrie; 
And  hes  twa  ky,  but  ony  ma, 
The  Vickar  must  haif  ane  of  thay, 
With  the  gray  frugge,  that  covers  the  bed, 
Howbeit,  the  wyfe  be  purelie  cled ; 
And  gif  the  wyfe  die  on  the  morne, 
Thocht  all  the  bairns  sould  be  forlorne, 
The  uther  kow,  he  cleiks  away, 
With  the  pure  cot  of  raploch  gray." — 

So  far  the  material  of  the  Satire,  while  often  didactic,  has 
been  largely  destructive  in  its  criticism.  All  the  abuses  in 
every  estate  of  the  realm  have  been  catalogued,  and  rebuked 
in  direct  satire,  abused  in  invective,  or  ridiculed  in  burlesque. 
But  now  the  reformatory  and  constructive  element  begins  to 
preponderate,  and  the  purpose  that  gave  birth  to  the  Satire  of 
the  Three  Estates  becomes  apparent.  The  satirist  has  re- 
hearsed the  evils  that  permeate  the  realm,  and  finally,  in  the 
person  of  John  the  Common  Weal,  proposes  a  remedy.  Par- 
liament must  pass  a  reform  bill,  which  will  take  cognizance 
of  the  abuses  in  the  Three  Estates,  that  is,  in  the  spiritual,  the 
political,  and  the  social  worlds.  All  temporal  lands  are  to  be 
"  set  in  few  "  unto  virtuous  men  that  labor  with  their  hands. 
Lords  shall  make  answer  to  the  crown  for  the  thieves  on  their 
estates  who  oppress  the  poor.  Law  courts  are  to  be  provided 
for  the  northern  counties ;  nunneries  are  to  be  abolished ;  tern- 


209 

poral  cases  are  to  be  removed  from  the  jurisdiction  of  ecclesias- 
tical courts — 

"  Let  Temporall  men  seik  Judges  temporall, 
And  spirituall  men  to  spiritualitie/' 

Benefices  shall  be  given  only  to  "  men  of  good  erudition, 
above  suspicion  of  vice,  and  qualified  right  prudently  to  preach, 
or  to  teach  in  famous  schools."  Because  ignorant  priests  have 
brought  the  Church  into  reproach,  no  Bishop  shall  henceforth 
allow  any  except  educated  men  to  teach.  No  prelate  shall  pur- 
chase a  benefice  from  Prince  or  Pope,  nor  any  priest  serve  two 
benefices,  nor  any  bishop  two  bishoprics.  That  they  may  the 
better  care  for  souls,  every  bishop  shall  remain  in  his  diocese, 
and  every  parson  in  his  parish.  No  money  shall  from  this  day 
forth  be  sent  to  Rome,  for  that  our  substance  is  thus  consumed 
for  bills  and  processes.  As  priests  for  the  most  part  lack  the 
gift  of  chastity,  we  will  grant  them  license  to  marry  and  live  all 
their  lives  in  chaste  and  lawful  wedlock. 

Such  is  the  Satire  of  the  Three  Estates,  rich  in  invective, 
burlesque,  and  didacticism ;  in  elements  of  the  satirical  and  of 
the  reformatory;  in  an  immense  range  of  material,  and  a  wide 
variety  of  tone.  Medley  as  it  is,  frequently  anything  but 
satirical,  it  still  remains  in  its  entirety  a  great  Satire  and  a 
genuine  contribution  to  the  literature  of  its  kind. 

It  is  interesting  to  know  that,  partly  owing  to  the  fact  that 
the  times  were  ripe  for  Lyndsay's  satire,  partly  owing  to  the 
vitality  and  force  of  its  presentation  of  abuses,  the  Satire  of 
the  Three  Estates,  together  with  Lyndsay's  other  satirical  verse, 
became  a  tremendous  motive  power  in  contemporary  Scotland. 
Sir  William  Eure  tells  us  that  after  the  representation  at  Lin- 
lithgow,  "  The  king  did  call  upon  the  Bishop  of  Glasgow,  the 
Chancellor  Dunbar,  and  the  other  bishops,  exorting  them  to  re- 
form their  manner  and  fashion  of  living."  James,  indeed, 
seems  to  have  encouraged  Lyndsay's  attacks  on  the  clergy. 
Probably  to  this  friendship  of  the  king,  Lyndsay  owed  his 
immunity  from  persecution  on  the  part  of  the  church.  His 
onslaught  against  clerical  morals  was  far  more  determined  and 


210 

vehement  than  any  that  had  brought,  or  was  to  bring,  to  the 
stake  other  critics  unprotected  by  the  royal  favor. 

This,  however,  was  only  one  reason  for  Lyndsay's  immu- 
nity. The  Satire  had  its  comic  side,  and  served  as  a  source 
of  amusement  to  the  very  classes  whom  it  reprehended.  Long 
ago  in  France  Rutebeuf  had,  through  similar  comic  effects, 
secured  a  similar  immunity;7  and  Lyndsay,  as  did  Rabelais, 
probably  adopted  the  broad  and  indecent  as  an  expedient  to 
secure  his  own  personal  safety  as  well  as  to  insure  a  popular 
hearing.8 

Lyndsay's  genuine  and  permanent  contribution  to  satire  lies 
rather  in  the  tone  than  in  the  form  of  his  work.  .  His  form 
was  one  that  was  already  decadent;  it  was  medieval  and  out- 
worn, and  could  not  well  have  any  influence  on  the  develop- 
ment of  the  formal  Satire.  But  Lyndsay's  wide  range  of 
material  and  variety  of  tone  render  his  satirical  work  typical 
of  almost  all  preceding  satire  in  English.  Still  more  than  this, 
his  style,  realistic,  vital  and  popular,  and  his  spirit,  aggressive 
and  fearless,  mark,  as  does  the  work  of  Skelton,  a  new  era 
in  satirical  writing.  In  this  respect  Lyndsay's  satire  is,  indeed, 
not  of  the  Middle  Ages,  but  of  the  Reformation. 

II 

But,  while  The  Satire  of  the  Three  Estates  is  by  far  the 
finest  as  well  as  the  most  elaborate  specimen  of  the  early  satiric 
play  in  English,  that  genre  was  not  the  property  of  Scotland 
alone.  South  of  the  Border  the  English  Moralities  and  Inter- 
ludes, produced  between  1500  and  1560,  were  attempting  what 
Lyndsay  attempted — a  survey  and  criticism  of  the  religious, 
social,  and  even,  to  a  less  degree,  the  political  conditions  of 
their  time.  Their  attempts  were  sporadic,  confused,  often 
almost  chaotic,  but  nevertheless  significant,  and  worth  consid- 
eration as  dramatic  satire. 

It  is  well  known  that  any  treatment  of  the  Moralities  and 
Interludes  of  this  period  is  rendered  difficult  by  several  facts. 
The  drama  itself  was  in  a  chaotic  condition:  various  forms 

7  Lenient,  p.  52  f. 

8 1  have  seen  this  suggestion  somewhere,  but  cannot  find  the  reference. 


211 

existed  side  by  side,  often  melted  into  one  another,  and  fre- 
quently became  indistinguishable.  The  Miracle  Plays  con- 
tinued t*o  be  presented  long  after  the  Elizabethan  play  had  taken 
formal  shape  in  tragedy,  comedy,  and  history-play.  The  terms 
"  Morality  "  and  "  Interlude  "  seemed  to  have  been  used  inter- 
changeably ;  and,  from  the  mere  title,  one  never  knows  what  to 
expect  from  a  pre-Elizabethan  play.  The  Interlude  of  Youth  is 
a  mere  Morality;  the  Interlude  Respublica  is  a  religious 
polemic ;  the  Morality  Albion  Knight  is  a  political  polemic ;  the 
Interlude  King  Darius  is  a  pseudo-history  play.  Thus  the 
confusion  seems  to  increase  with  the  investigation. 

This  confusion  is  one  not  merely  of  title,  but  also  of  methods. 
Very  few  plays  of  this  period  are  clearly  defined  in  scope  and 
purpose.  Nothing  is  more  common  than  to  find  burlesque  and 
didactic  moralizing,  the  ideal  and  the  real,  inextricably  mingled 
in  the  same  play. 

Its  apparent  lack  of  progress,  of  improvement  in  form  and 
style,  is  another  characteristic  that  marks  the  drama  in  England 
from  the  beginnings  of  the  Renaissance  to  the  rise  of  the  "  reg- 
ular drama."  The  older  criticism  that  developed  the  Miracle 
play,  the  Morality,  the  Interlude,  and  the  history-play,  in  beau- 
tiful order,  each  type  from  the  one  preceding,  is  abundantly 
refuted  by  the  most  cursory  reading  of  the  plays  themselves. 

But  it  is  here  our  purpose  merely  to  call  attention  to  the 
satirical  element  in  this  anomalous  drama.  Broadly  speaking, 
the  satire  found  in  the  Moralities  and  Interludes  is  of  two 
kinds — religious  and  social.  The  social  satire  is  of  a  clearly 
pronounced  type.  That  picturing  of  low  life  which  came  into 
English  satire  as  far  back  as  The  Vision  of  Piers  Plowman, 
which  was  continued  by  Skelton  in  his  Elynour  Rummynge,  and 
which  was  exemplified  so  largely  in  the  satire  on  Fools  and  on 
Rogues,  is  vastly  elaborated  in  the  later  Moralities.  This  satire 
on  low  life  grew  more  realistic  and  graphic  as  the  power  of 
characterization  increased  in  the  drama.  The  didactic  element 
in  the  later  Moralities  is  often  so  overshadowed  by  it  that  the 
dramatist  seems  to  have  forgotten  his  original  didactic  intent. 
The  scenes  from  low  life  are  presented  simply  for  their  own 
sake,  with  all  their  vulgar  realism — so  low  has  the  latei 
Morality  fallen  from  its  original  and  high  estate. 


212 

Together  with  this  comic  portrayal  of  low  life,  often  mingled 
with  it,  one  may  find  here  and  there  in  the  plays  of  all  types 
a  religious  satire  which  is  mainly  the  direct  outgrowth  of  the 
Reformation.  Some  of  these  plays,  notably  Bale's  Kyng  Johan 
and  Respublica,  are  professed  religious  polemics ;  in  many 
others,  such  as  Lusty  Juventus  and  two  or  three  of  the  Inter- 
ludes of  Heywood,  religious  satire  is  informal  and  incidental. 

But  dramatic  satire  in  England  has  left  its  traces  even  in 
the  Miracle  Plays.  What  Collier  terms  "  the  earliest  specimen 
of  dramatic  satire  in  the  language  "  occurs  in  the  twenty-sixth 
pageant  of  the  Coventry  plays,  where  Satan  describes  himself 
as  a  gallant  of  the  time  and  has  his  fling  at  contemporary  dress 
and  manners.  Religious  satire  crops  out  in  the  Twenty-eighth 
Towneley  ("  Juditium  "),  when  the  three  devils  read  over  their 
lists  of  the  wicked,  describing  every  kind  of  sinner,  and  the 
devil  "Tutivillus"  refers  to  himself  as  a  "master  Lollar." 
Such  traces,  however,  are  so  rare  as  to  render  them  prac- 
tically negligible.  It  was  not  until  realism,  characterization, 
observation  and  criticism  of  actual  life,  came  into  the  drama, 
that  satire  began  to  play  in  it  an  appreciable  part. 

Amid  a  host  of  anonymous  playwrights  of  this  our  present 
period  three  known  writers  stand  out  conspicuously:  Skelton, 
Heywood,  and  Bale. 

Skelton's  one  extant  play,  the  Morality  Magnyfycence?  is  a 
cross  between  the  old  Morality  with  its  severe  abstractions  and 
the  new  type  with  its  growing  realism.  It  is  so  far  from 
being  primarily  satirical,  that  its  satirical  content  is  propor- 
tionally slight  and  of  a  very  general  nature — glimpses  of  char- 
acterization, as  in  Folly;  general  allusions  to  the  low  life  of 
London  with  concomitant  vulgarity  of  speech ;  and  the  speeches 
of  Counter fet  Countenaunce,  such  as, 

"  Counterfet  prechynge,   and  beleue  the   contrary ; 
Counter  fet  conscyence,  peuysshe  pope  holy; 
Counterfet  sadnesse,   with   delynge   full   madly; 
Counterfet  holynes  is  called  ypocrysy." — 

Courtly  Abusyon  is  really  the  lying,  false  courtier,  and  might 

•  Works,  i,  225-310. 


213 

well  have  figured  in  The  Bouge  of  Courte.  As  he  speaks  to 
Magnyfycence,  he  utters  the  most  telling  satire  of  the  play : 

"  What  sholde  ye  do  elles  ?  are  not  you  a  lorde  ? 
Let  your  lust  and  your  lykynge  stand  for  a  lawe." 

One  wonders  whether  Magnyfycence  himself,  a  vague,  shadowy 
figure,  relying  on  his  own  power  and  wealth  and  falling  so  dis- 
astrously, does  not  perhaps  stand  for  the  whole  of  the  New 
Nobility.  But  whatever  satire  Magnyfycence  contains  is,  be- 
yond these  specific  passages,  very  difficult  to  determine. 

A  more  striking  figure  in  the  drama  than  Skelton  is  John 
Heywood,  though  perhaps  the  purely  satirical  element  in  his 
humorous  Interludes  has  been  exaggerated.  Of  Heywood's  six 
dramatic  pieces,  three  are  in  no  wise  satirical ;  but  the  three 
about  to  be  named,  though,  in  all  likelihood,  written  primarily 
to  amuse,  contain  more  or  less  intentional  satire. 

A  Mery  Play  between  John  the  Husband,  Tyb  the  Wife,  and 
Sir  John  the  Priest,™  is  a  dramatized  fabliau  in  that  it  holds 
up  to  ridicule  the  credulous  husband,  the  unfaithful  wife,  and 
the  wily  ecclesiastic.  The  Pardoner  and  the  Friar^  is  a  bur- 
lesque dialogue  in  which  the  Pardoner's  elaborate  speech  is 
of  a  kind  with  those  found  in  Chaucer,  Lyndsay,  and  Cock 
Lor  ell.  Both  Pardoner  and  Friar  are  rank  imposters.  Here 
the  humorous  element  far  outweighs  the  purely  satirical, 
though  the  burlesque  on  ecclesiastical  types  is  the  old  satire 
which  began  at  least  with  the  Goliards.12  The  Pardoner  again 
figures  in  that  most  amusing  of  Heywood's  Interludes,  The 
Four  P's.™  Pardoner,  Palmer,  Pedler,  and  Pothecary,  here 
indulge  in  satire  both  direct  and  indirect,  as  each  makes  him- 
self ridiculous  and  in  turn  holds  up  to  ridicule  his  opponent 
in  the  absurd  contest  that  forms  the  action  of  the  piece. 

Wit,  humorous  situations,  and  glimpses  of  characterization 
render  these  three  Interludes  worthy  of  the  honorable  place 

10  Quellen   des  weltlichen  Dramas  in  England  vor  Shakespeare,   ed.   A. 
Brandl. 

11  Dramatic  Writings  of  John  Heywood,  ed.  Farmer. 

12  See  supra,  p.  40  f. 

13  Dramatic   Writings,   ed.   Farmer. 


214 

they  hold  in  the  history  of  the  English  drama;  but  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  determine  their  exact  satirical  content.  They  are 
humorous  burlesques,  written  primarily  to  amuse  a  courtly 
audience.  In  their  subject-matter  there  is  nothing  new.  Hey- 
wood  was  himself  a  Catholic;  and,  if  his  Interludes  be  of 
satirical  intent  primarily,  they  are  probably  quite  unrelated  to 
the  Reformation. 

The  five  extant  plays  of  John  Bale,  bishop  of  Ossory,  are 
at  the  opposite  pole  from  the  Interludes  of  Heywood.  While 
more  or  less  polemic,  Bale's  plays  can  be  termed  satirical  only 
by  the  broadest  application  of  the  word.  An  outgrowth  of 
the  Reformation  as  they  are,  the  little  real  satire  they  contain 
is  of  course  religious  and  militant. 

In  The  Temptacyon  of  our  Lorde1*  the  first  speech  of 
"  Baleus  Prolocutor "  advocates  the  use  of  the  "  Word  of 
God  "  as  an  authority  in  matters  of  religion  and  a  means  of 
defense  against  the  assaults  of  the  devil.  More  plainly  satir- 
ical are  a  few  lines  of  Satan's  last  speech :  False  priests  and 
bishops,  even  the  "  Vicar  of  Rome,"  shall  worship  the  devil, 
and  Christ  may  worship  whom  He  will!  Apart  from  these 
passages,  this  Morality  is  wholly  didactic. 
'  God's  Promises,™  a  setting  forth  of  the  doctrine  of  justifi- 
cation by  faith,  is  even  more  innocent  of  satire  than  the  pre- 
ceding. The  Three  Laws  of  Nature,  Moses,  and  Christ,  Cor- 
rupted by  the  Sodomites,  Pharisees,  and  Papists,16 — not  an 
easily  accessible  play, — is,  according  to  Professor  Herford,  a 
biblical  plot  made  to  serve  as  a  vehicle  for  Protestant  tenets. 
Its  abstractions,  such  as  Ambition,  Avarice,  and  others,  are 
monks  and  priests  in  disguise.17  John  Baptyste18  is  in  its 
controversial  elements  very  similar  to  the  preceding. 

It  is,  finally,  to  Kynge  Johan™  that  we  must  look  for  Bale's 
contribution  to  dramatic  satire.  This  play,  written  about  1546, 
is,  first  of  all,  a  distinct  product  of  the  Reformation,  a  religi- 

14  Fuller's  Worthies  Misc.,  I,  ed.  Grosart. 
™Dodsley's  Old  Plays,  ed.  Hazlitt,  i,  285  f. 

16  Anglia,  V,  137  f. 

17  Herford,  pp.  133,  134. 
"Harleian  Misc.,   I. 

19  Cam.  Soc.  Pub.,  vol,  2,  ed.  Collier. 


215 

ous  polemic,  not  a  true  Chronicle  play.  Bale  seized  upon  the 
bare  fact  that  John  had  been  opposed  by  the  Pope  and  by  the 
French,  and  thus  transforms  the  miserable,  lying,  treacherous 
knave  into  a  hero ;  he  turns  Stephen  Langton  into  a  seditious 
traitor;  and  presents  his  other  historical  characters  so  faintly 
that  the  reader  feels  no  surprise  when  he  finds  each  character 
"  the  double  of  an  abstraction."  The  use  of  the  mere  Moral- 
ity for  polemic  purposes  was  not  new — the  Satire  of  the  Three 
Estates  preceded  Kyng  Johan  by  several  years ;  but  the  intro- 
duction into  the  Morality  of  actual  historical  personages,  each 
of  whom  at  the  same  time  represents  an  abstract  quality — as 
Langton,  Dissimulation ;  Pandulph,  Private  Wealth ;  the  Pope, 
Usurped  Power, — this  was  quite  new  and,  in  its  peculiar  way, 
strikingly  effective. 

To  detail  the  story  of  the  play  would  here  be  supereroga- 
tory, since  Professor  Morley  furnishes  an  elaborate  synopsis 
in  the  eighth  volume  of  his  English  Writers,  and  Professor 
Ward  a  detailed  analysis  in  his  History.  It  would  be  equally 
superfluous  to  enter  upon  any  criticism  of  the  literary  quality 
of  the  play  or  to  discuss  its  place  in  the  history  of  the  English 
drama.  It  is  enough  to  say  that  Kyng  Johan,  anomalous  as 
it  is  in  its  general  scheme,  absurd  in  many  of  its  details,  yet 
attains  as  a  whole  considerable  dignity  and  power. 

Lyndsay's  influence  is  apparent  in  the  idea  of  the  "  three 
estates  " — here  given  as  Commonalty,  Nobility,  and  Clergy ; 
and  England  appears  in  the  role  taken  in  Lyndsay's  play  by 
John  the  Commonweal.  Aside  from  this,  Bale  perhaps  owes 
little  to  Lyndsay,  and  his  play  is  not  comparable  to  the  Satire 
of  the  Three  Estates  in  range  of  subject-matter  or  in  variety 
of  tone  and  style.  That  Kyng  Johan  is  indebted  to  Kirch- 
meyer's  Pammachius  for  its  general  plan  is  asserted  by  Pro- 
fessor Herford,  who  furnishes  interesting  parallels  between 
the  two  plays.20  We  are  here  concerned  only  with  the  satir- 
ical content  of  the  play;  and  it  cannot  be  denied  that  Bale's 
scorn  of  "  popery  "  finds  expression  that  is  often  surprisingly 
vigorous.  The  tone  of  Kyng  Johan  as  a  whole,  however,  is 
moralistic  and  sombre  rather  than  satirical.  Bale  was  a  man 

20  Herford,  pp.  136,  137. 


216 

of  one  idea.  His  attack  is  direct  and  unsparing,  without  sub- 
tle thrust  or  lambent  humor.  Sarcasm  and  invective  are  his 
ready  weapons ;  his  satire  is  the  satire  of  utter  scorn  that  will 
not  condescend  to  play  with  the  object  of  its  contempt.  As 
Dissimulation  unveils  his  own  methods  and  shamelessly  ex- 
poses the  practices  of  the  Church,  Bale's  voice  may  be  heard 
in  the  stinging  indictment.  Sedition's  speech  as  a  Pardoner, 
analogous  to  the  burlesques  in  Chaucer,  Lyndsay,  Heywood, 
and  Cock  Lor  ell,  shows  the  vulgarity  of  speech  to  which  the 
bishop  of  Ossory  could  descend  when  bent  upon  his  prey. 
Treason's  plain  speeches  show  how  much  the  Church  includes 
of  Mosaic  and  of  pagan  rites  and  how  little  of  Christ — 

"  Nothynge  at  all,  but  the  epystle  and  the  gospell, 
And  that  is  in  Latyne  that  no  man  shoulde  it  knowe." 

It  is  quite  possible  that  one  single  burlesque  speech  in  any 
one  of  Hey  wood's  Interludes  accomplished  more  for  the  Ref- 
ormation than  all  the  sarcasm  and  scorn  and  vulgarity  of 
Bale's  Kyng  Johan.  Yet  the  play  is  in  itself  a  prophecy  and 
a  link  in  a  chain — a  prophecy  of  a  time,  little  more  than  a  gen- 
eration distant,  when  the  drama  of  England  was  to  show  what 
satire  could  achieve  in  a  dramatic  form;  a  link  in  a  chain, 
because  it  is  but  one  of  a  long  and  mighty  series  of  religious 
satires  more  or  less  dramatic,  stretching  down  from  the  time 
of  Langland  and  Chaucer,  and  also  one  of  the  many  Protestant 
polemics  of  its  own  tempestuous  period. 

Apart  from  the  work  of  Skelton,  of  Heywood,  and  of  Bale, 
we  must  turn  to  the  mass  of  mainly  anonymous  Moralities  and 
Interludes  of  the  present  period  for  further  evidences  of  dra- 
matic satire. 

In  such  well-known  plays  as  The  Castle  of  Perseverance ; 
The  Nice  Wanton;  Mind,  Will,  and  Understanding;  Mankind, 
and  Everyman,  satire  is  practically  absent.  In  the  equally  well- 
known  Lusty  Juventus  the  satire  of  the  Reformation  appears 
\n  the  speech  of  Hypocrisy,  who  asserts  that  he  has  set  up,  as 
snares  for  the  innocent,  all  the  trappings  of  Rome : 

"  Holy  cardinals,   holy  popes, 
Holy  vestments,   holy  copes, 


217 

Holy  hermits,  holy  friars, 
Holy  monks,  holy  abbots, 
Yea,  and  all  obstinate  liars," — 

and  so  on,  through  the  list  of  all  that  was  antipathetic  to  the 
Lutheran.  In  Hick  Scorner,  where  the  satire  is  wholly  inci- 
dental, the  speeches  of  Freewill  and  of  Imagination  give  pic- 
tures of  low  life,  and  so  connect  with  the  Satire  on  Rogues. 

Into  Nature,2*  which  is  in  form  a  true  Morality,  new  ele- 
ments have  entered.  Some  of  its  personages  are  more  than 
mere  abstractions,  they  are  types ;  and  here  and  there  through 
the  play  are  glimpses  of  low  life  portrayed  with  vivid  realism 
and  genuine  humor.  The  two  speeches  of  Pride,  distinct 
Satires  on  the  dress  and  manners  of  the  young  gallant  of  the 
period,  suggest  Wynkyn  de  Worde's  Treatise  of  this  Gallant.2'2' 
Gluttony,  Wrath,  Man,  and  other  characters  in  Nature,  join 
in  producing  a  series  of  brief  but  telling  sketches  of  life  in 
the  author's  London.  It  is  practically  impossible  in  such  a 
play  to  dissociate  the  satirical  from  the  purely  humorous 
elements. 

The  Morality  Albion  Knight™  which  exists  only  as  a  frag- 
ment, was  written  some  time  between  1540  and  1566,  and  per- 
haps satirizes  political  conditions  in  the  early  years  of  Henry 
VIII.  While  the  fragment  extant  does  not  deal  with  the  Ref- 
ormation, it  is  probable  that  the  play  as  a  whole  reviewed  the 
entire  conditions  of  its  time.  The  fragment  shows  nothing 
new,  and,  coming  after  Bale  and  Lyndsay,  is  of  no  especial 
significance. 

In  1553  Kyng  Johan  found  its  answer  in  Respublica*4  dis- 
tinctly a  Catholic  polemic.  Respublica  marks  a  religious  reac- 
tion. But,  while  it  is  evidently  an  answer  to  the  Protestant 
polemics,  it  is  remarkable  in  that  it  makes  no  attempt  to  defend 
the  ecclesiastical  practices  attacked  by  the  Protestants,  and  is 
in  no  sense  theological.  On  the  contrary,  it  attempts  to  por- 
tray the  economic  condition  of  the  country  towards  the  close 

21  Ed.  Brandl,  Quellen  d.  welt.  Dramas. 

22  See  supra,  p.  170  f. 

23  Anonymous  Plays,  2d  Series,  ed.  Farmer,  pp.  117  to  132. 

24  "  Lost  "  Tudor  Plays,  ed.  Farmer. 


218 

of  Edward  the  Sixth's  reign — England  ruined  by  Protestant 
domination.  People,  though  rather  a  comic  character,  who 
speaks  in  dialect,  is  very  much  in  earnest  as  he  complains  of 
his  sad  lot.  Avarice,  Insolence,  Oppression,  and  Adulation, 
Protestant  ministers  of  state  under  Edward  VI,  through  the 
disclosure  of  their  own  frauds,  reflect  severely  upon  the  mal- 
administration of  Edward's  reign.  Though  tedious,  diffuse, 
rather  colorless,  Respublica  contains  a  few  touches  of  real 
power. 

The  Protestant  side  again  finds  an  advocate  in  New  Cus- 
tom,25 an  odd  mixture  of  true  Morality  and  sheer  burlesque. 
Burlesque  satire,  directed  against  "  popery,"  appears  in  the 
speeches  of  Hypocrisy  and  of  the  "  popish  priests,"  Perverse 
Doctrine  and  Ignorance.  New  Custom  and  Light  of  the  Gos- 
pel are  both  ministers  of  the  Reformed  Faith,  whose  cry  is 
"  Give  the  people  light  through  reading  the  New  Testament 
and  preaching  from  its  texts." 

While  its  epilogue  declares  that  the  school  Interlude  Jack 
Juggler26  (1553?)  contains  a  double  meaning  and  has  great 
contemporary  significance,  and  while  Professor  Gayley  builds 
on  this  epilogue  a  plea  for  the  satiric  quality  of  the  play,  it 
is  difficult  to  see  in  it  anything  more  than  amusing  burlesque. 
Satire  so  completely  hidden  can  hardly  be  effective.  This 
same  obscurity  envelops  the  Interlude  Godly  Queen  Hester27 
written  perhaps  before  1530.  Possibly  the  career  of  Wolsey 
is  sketched  in  the  downfall  of  Haman,  but  the  treatment  of 
the  theme  is  anything  but  satirical. 

In  The  World  and  the  Child28  occurs  a  satiric  dialogue  be- 
tween Manhood  and  Folly.  The  speech  of  the  latter  connects 
with  the  Satire  of  Fools,  as  might  be  expected,  but  in  one  of 
its  phases  it  is  also  vaguely  reminiscent  of  Piers  Plowman29 — 
for  Folly,  in  his  relations  with  various  classes  of  society,  is  a 
welcome  guest  in  the  nunneries,  and  has  for  many  years  dwelt 

*  Anonymous  Plays,  sd  Series,  ed.  Farmer,  pp.  157-202. 
**  Ibid,  pp.  1—40. 

*  Anonymous  Plays,  2d  Series,  ed.  Farmer,  pp.  245-287. 
M  Dodsley's  Old  Plays,  ed.  Hazlitt. 

18  See  supra,  p.  75. 


219 

with  the  friars,  who  crowned  him  king!  Also  mildly  anti- 
papist  are  the  speeches  of  Iniquity,  the  Vice  in  the  Interlude 
King  Darius,30  printed  in  1565. 

The  Four  Elements^  contains  a  trace  of  literary  satire  in 
the  speech  of  the  Messenger,  who  pleads  for  the  English 
tongue  as  a  vehicle  for  serious  matter  in  place  of  the  folly 
which  now  wholly  employs  it.  The  figure  of  Riot  in  The 
Interlude  of  Youth32  reminds  the  reader  of  Skelton's  Riot  in 
the  Bouge  of  Court.  The  Priest  in  The  Disobedient  Child33 
inveighs  against  drunken  clerks.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to 
record  the  faint  traces  of  satire,  social,  political,  and  religious, 
that  occur  in  the  other  Interludes  and  Moralities  of  the  pres- 
ent period.  Professor  Ward  states  that  several  polemic  plays, 
no  longer  extant,  were  produced  in  the  later  days  of  Henry 
VIII.34  These  probably  presented  little  variation  on  what  has 
already  been  considered.  Such  controversial  Moralities  were 
continued  on  into  the  Elizabethan  age.  Robin  Conscience  and 
The  Endightment  against  Mother  Masse  are  satiric  dialogues 
described  by  Professor  Herford.35 

Taken  as  a  whole,  the  plays  satirical  either  wholly  or  in 
parts,  written  between  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century 
and  the  accession  of  Elizabeth,  present  no  subject-matter  that 
differs  radically  from  that  found  in  the  undramatic  satire  of 
the  same  period.  The  satire  on  low  life,  a  phase  of  social 
satire,  was  shared  by  forms  other  than  the  drama;  the  satire 
on  religious  questions,  while  it  chiefly  characterizes  the  plays, 
is  also  found  in  other  literary  forms.  It  is  rather  in  their  pic- 
turesque and  vivid  treatment,  sometimes  approaching  the  truly 
dramatic,  that  the  Moralities  and  Interludes  from  Magnyfy- 
cence  to  Albion  Knight  surpassed  other  more  or  less  satirical 
verse  of  their  time.  This  fact  again  illustrates  the  statement 
made  in  the  introductory  chapter  of  the  present  book — that 

80  Anon.  Plays,  3d  Series,  ed.  Farmer,  pp  41-92. 

^Dodsley's  Old  Plays,  ed.  Hazlitt. 

M  Ibid. 

"  Ibid. 

"Ward,  A  History  of  English  Dramatic  Literature,  Vol.  I,  p.   136. 

"  Herford,  p.  55  ;  63-6. 


220 

only  when  satire  actually  takes  the  form  of  the  drama,  or  at 
least  employs  the  general  dramatic  method,  does  it  achieve  its 
highest  and  most  effective  expression.36  Religious  satire  was 
soon  to  fade  from  the  drama ;  but  out  of  these  crude  attempts 
at  the  satiric  play,  after  cross-fertilization  from  foreign 
sources,  were  finally  to  come  The  Alchemist,  Volpone,  and 
Bartholomew  Fair. 

36  See  supra,  p.  24. 


CHAPTER   VIII 
SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSION 

The  Church  the  chief  object  of  medieval  satire  in  England. — Attitude 
of  various  satirists  towards  the  Church. — The  Goliards,  Wireker,  Gower, 
Chaucer,  The  Lollards,  Dunbar,  Skelton,  Lyndsay. — Religious  satire  a 
gradual  growth. — Political  Satire. — Its  constant  appearance  from  the  reign 
of  John  to  that  of  Henry  VIII.— Its  value.— The  Moral  Satire.— Its  lack 
of  interest  and  power. — The  Social  Satire. — Its  growth. — Its  significance 
and  value. — The  tone  of  medieval  verse-satire  in  England. — Its  chaotic 
form. — General  relation  of  this  medieval  product  to  later  satire  in  verse. 
— The  New  Satire  of  Wyatt  and  the  Elizabethans. 

I 

With  the  great  names  of  Barclay,  Skelton,  and  Lyndsay 
comes  the  close  and  the  summing  up  of  medieval  satire  in 
England.  Nothing  could  better  illustrate  the  characteristics 
of  the  English  people  through  these  three  centuries  than  the 
subject-matter,  the  tone,  and  the  form,  of  this  medieval  prod- 
uct. Of  the  subject-matter,  the  religious  aspect  was  the  most| 
significant  feature.  It  speaks  volumes  for  the  wretched  con- 
dition of  the  church  in  England,  that  for  centuries  this  condi- 
tion should  have  furnished  the  chief  target  for  satirical  attack. 
The  immorality  and  ignorance  of  the  clerical -orders  of  every 
kind  and  degree,  the  sale  of  benefices,  absentee  clergy,  plural 
livings,  and  other  ecclesiastical  corruptions,  continue  to  fur- 
nish a  perennial  source  of  satire  of  every  conceivable  tone.1  The 
Goliardic  writers  and  Nigellus  Wireker  laughed  at  this  clerical 
corruption;  Gower  wept  over  it;  Chaucer  satirized  it  in  his 
inimitable  pictures  of  contemporary  life.  The  Lollards,  some- 
times abusing  and  sometimes  ridiculing  clerical  immorality, 
did  not  confine  themselves  to  this  one  theme,  but  demanded 
reforms  in  church  doctrine  as  well  as  in  the  morals  of  the 

1  Satire  against  the  clergy  was  the  common  property  of  medieval  Europe. 
The  English  product  is  inferior  to  that  of  the  Continent,  at  least  in 
humor.  See  Schneegans,  Lenient,  passim. 

221 


222 

clergy.  Dunbar  treated  the  subject  largely  in  burlesque; 
Barclay  reverted  to  the  generalized  lament;  Skelton  scolded, 
stormed,  and  abused;  and  Lyndsay  arraigned  clerical  corrup- 
tion with  an  effective  mingling  of  ridicule  and  invective.  The 
"  Satire  of  the  Reformation  "  sums  up  every  phase  of  this 
religious  subject-matter,  enlarging  on  the  scope  of  its  prede- 
cessor, the  Lollard  satire  of  a  century  previous,  and  calling 
for  reform  in  the  morals,  the  doctrine,  and  the  polity  of  the 
Church,  with  a  voice  sometimes  harsh  with  invective  and 
abuse,  sometimes  laughing  with  ridicule,  but  often  effective, 
because  earnest  and  sincere.2 

This  Religious  Satire  was  a  gradual  growth.  Through  three 
centuries  it  became  more  comprehensive  in  its  material,  more 
outspoken  and  bitter  in  its  tone.  At  last  its  purpose  was 
effected,  very  differently  from  the  expectations  and  desires  of 
many  of  its  exponents.  Reform  from  within  failed.  Only 
radical  methods  from  without  could  attain  the  object  aimed 
at  by  almost  every  British  satirist  from  Walter  Map  to  Sir 
David  Lyndsay. 

With  the  Reformation,  this  distinct  variety  of  satire  of 
course  died  away,  though  its  echoes  continued  through  the 
Elizabethan  period,  until  ecclesiastical  polity  and  doctrine 
were  settled  once  and  forever,  and  the  clergy  ceased  to  offer 
so  inviting  a  target  for  satirical  shafts. 

While  this  Religious  Satire  was  a  gradual  growth,  the  Polit- 
ical Satire  of  the  Middle  Ages  is  an  even  more  significant  and 
distinct  product  of  development.  From  the  beginning,  the 
political  Satire  shows  the  English  interest  in  public  affairs.  It 
is  far  more  inclined  to  personalities  than  the  Religious  Satire, 
and  exhibits  much  more  contemporary  color.  It  begins  with  the 
sirventes  against  King  John,3  and  again  appears  in  the  weak  and 
disastrous  reign  of  Henry  III  and  the  turmoil  of  the  Barons' 

2  In  mere  bulk,  the  satire  of  the  Reformation  in  England  cannot  com- 
pare   with    the    analogous    product    in    France ;    while    in    humor,    literary 
power,   general   effectiveness,   it   falls   far  below  that   of   France   and   that 
of  Germany. 

3  See  supra,  p.  48  f. 


223 

War.4  It  fills  the  reign  of  Richard  II  with  a  strident  cry 
against  the  weakness  of  the  king  and  the  corruption  and  in- 
competentcy  of  his  ministers.5  It  speaks  again  through  the  long 
and  troublous  reign  of  Henry  VI  and  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  ;6 
and  finally  culminates  in  the  early  part  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury with  the  numberless  and  virulent  attacks  against  the  great 
ministers  Wolsey  and  Cromwell,  who,  in  the  eyes  of  the  people, 
represented  wickedness  in  high  places.7  Usually  direct  and 
severe,  such  satire  embodies  little  humor,  but  great  vigor  of  \ 
expression.  It  is  characteristic  of  English  conservatism,  that 
through  the  entire  range  of  this  political  satire  England's  kings 
are  usually  spared,  while  upon  royal  ministers  is  laid  the  entire 
blame  of  maladministration.  As  the  English  people  gained 
in  power  to  govern  and  to  express  themselves,  their  political 
satire  grew  from  small  beginnings  into  one  of  the  most  power- 
ful instruments  ever  wielded  for  the  expression  of  the  people's 
rights.  In  Skelton's  bitter  attacks  on  Wolsey8  and  in  Lynd-\ 
say's  vigorous  calls  for  political  reform  in  Scotland,9  the' 
Political  Satire  of  medieval  England  culminates  in  a  type 
replete  with  vitality  and  contemporary  interest. 

This  contemporary  interest  is  fatally  lacking  in  what  may 
be  termed  the  Moral  Satire,  the  most  prevalent  but  least 
effective  variety  of  its  kind  in  medieval  literature.  It  is  only  too 
apt  to  be  abstract  and  dull,  for  it  is  entirely  free  from  personali- 
ties and  exhibits  but  little  contemporary  color.  On  the  contrary, 
it  delights  in  a  maximum  of  that  "  satirical  commonplace " 
which  more  or  less  characterizes  every  variety  of  the  medieval 
Satire,  and  is  so  fatal  to  permanent  interest  and  power.10 
This  didactic  Satire  on  the  virtues  and  vices  is  so  apt  to  in- 
vade the  domain  of  other  varieties  that  very  few  medieval 
English  satirical  poems  are  entirely  free  from  its  influence.  Yet, 
as  in  the  poems  of  Gower,  it  is  frequently  found  quite  by  itself. 

4  See  supra,  p.  50  f. 

5  See  supra,  p.  82  f. 

6  See  supra,  p.  126  f. 

7  See  supra,  p.  172  f. 

8  See  supra,  p.  150  f. 
'  See  supra,  p.  204  f. 
10  See  supra,  p.  32. 


224 

Though  perennial,  it  suffered  a  loss  of  vigor  upon  the  advent  of 
the  greater  individuality  and  realism  of  the  Renaissance,  when 
attention  to  actual  life  and  its  details  became  necessarily  fatal 
to  the  dull  abstractions  of  medievalism.  The  Satire  on  The 
Seven  Deadly  Sins  survived  till  the  Elizabethan  period,  but 
passed  into  something  far  more  interesting  through  its  greater 
attention  to  contemporary  life. 

Far  removed  from  the  vague  and  ineffective  generalities,  the 
didacticism  and  dullness,  of  the  Moral  Satire,  is  the  Social 
Satire  on  themes  concrete  and  contemporary.  In  its  begin- 
nings, this  variety  connects  itself  with  the  Moral  Satire  on 
the  one  hand  and  with  the  Religious  Satire  on  the  other.  In- 
deed, at  first  it  is  largely  identical  with  these  varieties.  But 
gradually  a  type  is  developed,  dealing  with  purely  social 
themes,  such  as  the  condition  of  the  people,  and  sug- 
gesting their  aspirations.  Far  back  in  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury we  see  this  type  exemplified  in  the  long  poem  on  The 
Times  of  Edward  7/.11  Langland  illustrates  it,  too,  with 
increased  vividness  and  power.12  The  long  anonymous  poems 
of  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII  again  exemplify  it,  for  Vox 
Populi,  Vox  Dei13  is  also  of  this  kind.  It  is  ever  the  voice 
of  the  people,  sure  and  strong.  Of  humor  there  is  little 
enough ;  the  touch  is  heavy ;  the  purpose  distinctly  reformatory. 
At  last  the  type  culminates  in  Lyndsay's  powerful  and  vivid 
sketches  of  "  Pauper "  and  "  Jsohn  the  Commonweal."*4 
While  pathetic,  there  is  yet  something  splendid,  something  epic, 
in  this  voice  of  a  nation  struggling  upward  to  the  light. 
In  such  an  aspect,  this  Social  Satire,  crude  and  formless  as  it 
often  is,  assumes  a  considerable  measure  of  dignity  and  power. 

In  this  sombre  and  earnest  type  we  find  little  real  character- 
ization and  little  genuine  social  satire  of  the  lighter  and  more 
interesting  kind.  This  was  to  come  later.  Yet  satire  of  this 
kind  also  had  its  early  beginnings.  It  manifests  itself  first  in 
the  genre  pictures  of  Langland.  It  attains  its  best  estate  in  the 

11  See  supra,  p.  64  f. 

12  See  supra,  p.  76  f. 
"See  supra,  p.  173  f. 
14  See  supra,  p.  206  f. 


225 

delightful  contemporary  sketches  of  Chaucer.  But  it  is  most 
characteristically  a  product  of  the  Renaissance,  with  its  humor, 
realism,  and  treatment  of  actual  life.  The  Elynour  Rum- 
mynge15  of  Skelton  is  of  this  type;  while  a  host  of 
anonymous  productions  of  the  new  period  embody  the  same 
spirit.  Even  Barclay,  when  he  forgets  himself,  indulges 
slightly  in  real  social  satire;  Dunbar  glories  in  it;  Lyndsay 
exemplifies  it  finely  in  the  Satire  of  the  Three  Estates.  Sub- 
varieties  of  this  kind  are  the  so-called  Fool  Satire  and  Satire 
on  Rogues,16  which  picture  low  life  with  humor  and  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  characterization.  With  the  growth  of  the 
Renaissance  comes  an  increase  of  contemporary  detail,  of  local 
color,  in  the  Social  Satire.  In  this  respect  it  offers  an  analogy 
to  the  growth  of  the  drama  through  the  earlier  and  more  ab-  ^J  j^. 
stract  Moralities  to  the  later  Moralities  and  Interludes  with  . 
their  humorous  character-studies.  Gradually  this  new  Satire 
tends  to  displace  the  earlier,  heavier,  and  more  generalized  ^ 
type,  and  looks  forward  to  the  Social  Satire  of  the  Eliza-  ^ 
bethan  classicists,  and  even  beyond — to  the  Satire  of  Pope.  It 
is  the  greatest  variety  of  its  kind.  Having  all  the  essentials 
of  life  within  itself,  it  needs  only  the  classical  influence17  from 
without  to  develope  finally  into  a  fqrni  highly  representative 
of  the  period  in  which  it  flourishes.  |  It  is  ever  tending  toward 

the  dramatic,  striving  to  fulfill  the  true*f unction  of  the  Satire = 

the  picturing  and  the  criticism  of  contemporary  life.] 

II 

Such,  in  brief,  is  the  subject-emitter  of  the  medieval  English 
Satire.  In  regard  to  the  tone  of  this  product  little  remains 
to  be  said.  Its  weapon  is  mainly  invective,  with  few  traces 
of  genuine  humor.18  This  lack  of  humor  may  perhaps  be  ex- 
plained by  the  didactic  and  reformatory  purpose  that  inspired  / 
this  medieval  product,  which  arose  as  a  popular  mode  of  ex- 
pression and  not  as  a  literary  genre.  Yet  its  pessimistic  tone 

15  See  supra,  p.  149. 

16  See  supra,  p.*  177  f. 

17  See  supra,  p.  15  f. 

18  See  supra,  p.  8. 


226 

is  somewhat  relieved  by  religious  hopefulness:  the  world 
is  not  all  bad;  certain  social  classes  are  often  exempted 
from  the  general  censure.  J  The  didactic  and  constructive 
element  appears  in  the  representation  of  the  ideal,  as  in 
Piers  Plowman,  /  Finally,  with  all  its  lack  of  individuality 
and  self -revelation,  with  all  its  invective,  didacticism,  and  dull- 
ness, the  medieval  verse-Satire  in  England  still  remains  at  its 
best  estate  a  product  dignified  through  its  earnestness  and 
sincerity. 

Ill 

Varied  as  is  the  subject-matter  of  this  medieval  Satire 
in  England,  it  is  perhaps  in  form  that  the  greatest  variety 
occurs.  The  form  was,  indeed,  almost  chaotic;  for  we  must 
remember  that  through  these  centuries  the  Satire  was  not  a 
recognized  genre.  Even  the  name  "  Satire  "  itself  was  rarely 
used,  and  then  only  with  the  vaguest  reference  to  the  classics. 
The  verse-form  might  or  might  not  be  stanzaic,  as  suited  the 
whim  of  the  writer.  The  poem  might  be  of  any  length,  in 
any  meter.  And  the  method  was  almost  as  varied  as  the  form 
of  verse.  This  method  might  be  that  of  direct  address,  as  in  the 
Poem  on  the  Times  of  Edward  II;  again  it  might  be  narra- 
tive, as  in  Piers  Plowman;  dramatic,  as  in  the  Satire  of  the 
Three  Estates;  or  it  might  be  the  method  of  the  popular  ballad, 
as  in  Richard  of  Cornwall.  The  characteristic  style  is  diffuse 
and  free  from  allusions  of  any  kind.  The  Protean  forms  are 
bound  together  only  by  the  unifying  spirit  of  destructive 
criticism. 

IV 

Such  is  the  typical  medieval  English  Satire  before  the  time 
of  Wyatt — a  poem  embodying  political,  religious,  and  social 
subject-matter;  in  tone  didactic,  severe,  of  little  humor,  of 
much  invective ;  employing  mainly  the  method  of  direct  attack, 
with  little  individuality  and  little  picturing  of  contemporary 
life;  practically  formless,  yet  through  the  centuries  very  grad- 
ually but  distinctly  tending  to  evolve  from  its  chaotic  condi- 
tion into  a  recognized  literary  genre. 


227 

The  relation  of  this  protoplasmic  medieval  product  to  the 
more  finished  form  of  the  late  seventeenth  century  cannot  be 
treated  here.  It  is  more  than  possible,  however,  that  the  native 
English  qualities  of  this  early  Satire  passed  in  some  measure 
into  the  Elizabethan  imitations  of  Horace  and  Juvenal;  and, 
through  these,  bequeathed  to  the  finished  Satire  of  a  century 
later  a  breadth  of  interests,  a  wide  range  of  subject-matter, 
and  a  vigorous  form  of  expression.  These  qualities,  combined 
with  those  derived  from  the  Classics,  finally  made  the  genre 
not  a  mere  exotic  imitation  but  a  type  thoroughly  native  to  the 
soil.  This  happy  blending  of  English  and  Classical  qualities 
appears  partly  in  the  Satires  of  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt  (c.  1540)  ; 
it  appears  again  and  perhaps  more  fully  in  the  imitative  experi- 
ments of  the  Elizabethans ;  but  it  is  best  illustrated  in  the  work 
of  Dryden  and  of  Pope. 

With  the  year  1540  was  reached  the  end  of  an  era  in  the 
history  of  the  English  Satire.    A  new  age  began  when  Wyatt 
turned  for  his  inspiration  to  Horace  and  to  Alamanni.     Some 
of  the  anonymous  and  elaborate  Social  Satires  were  yet  to  be 
written;  but  the  Medieval  Satire,  though  still  dominant,  was 
on  the  decline.     With  the  work  of  Wyatt  a  new  species  ap- 
peared— a  Satire  of  classical  origin, — quiet,  polished,  reflec-V 
tive,  individual,  in  almost  every  detail  contrasting  strangely- 
with  that  spontaneous,  uncouth,  didactic,  generalized  product 
embodied  in  English  verse-satire  before  the  Renaissance.      — 


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principal  critical  studies  which  have  proved  of  value;  those  his- 
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present  work;  and,  finally,  histories  of  foreign  literatures,  ancient 
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conclusions  reached  in  Chapter  I  (the  theory  of  the  Satire)  ;  many 
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INDEX. 


Absalom  and  Achitophel,  32 

Addison,  6,   10;  satiric  essays,  7 

Aelfric,  references  to  heaven  and 
hell  in  his  prose,  53 

Aeneas  Silvius,   165 

Aeschylus,  25 

Aesop,  27,  136;  King  Stork  and 
King  Log,  32  n. 

Against  Evil  Women,  139,  140 

Against  Women  Unconstant,  balade, 
116 

Alaraanni,    227 

Albion  Knight,  211,  217,  219 

Alchemist,  The,  7,  112,  220 

Alchemy,  satire  against,   ii2f.,   166 

Allegory,  the  satiric,  28;  in  Specu- 
lum Stultorum,  45 ;  in  Piers 
Plowman,  70-9  ;  in  The  House  of 
Fame,  114—6 

Anglo-French  satire,  36,  37 ;  songs 
against  King  John,  48f . ;  against 
papal  tax,  49!:. ;  against  monastic 
clergy,  571. ;  against  public  fraud, 
59 

Anglo-Latin  satire,  39 ;  Speculum 
Stultorum,  43-6  ;  De  Vita  Mona- 
chorum,  46 ;  Entheticus,  47 

Anglo-Latin  satirists  and  epigram- 
matists, 17  and  n.,  36,  39  ;  Wireker, 
43f. ;  Neckham,  46 ;  John  of 
Salisbury,  47. 

Anti-Jacobin,  The,  satire  of,  5 

Apocalypsis   Goliae,    analysis   of,   40 

Archilochus,    n,    23 

Aretino,   Pietro,   30 

Ariosto,  Satires,  7,  18 

Aristophanes,  6,  24,  25,  33 ;  plays, 
7,  14,  18;  The  Frogs,  24 

Art  of  Cookery,  The,  21  n. 

Art  of  Love,  The,  21  n. 

Art  of  Preaching,   The,  21  n. 

Awdelay,    John,    54,    181 


Bale,  John,  212;  Temptacyon  of  our 


Lorde,  214;  God's  Promises,  214; 
Three  Laws,  214;  John  Baptyste, 
214;  Kynge  Johan,  214-6;  his  sa- 
tiric method,  216,  217 

Ball,  John,   doggerel  rhymes,   82 

Ballad  of  Luther,  the  Pope,  A  Car- 
dinal and  a  Husbandman,  A,  195 

Ballads,  politico-satirical,  4 ;  of 
Civil  War  and  Protectorate,  4,  7 ; 
in  Wars  of  the  Roses,  130,  131  n. 

Ballat  of  the  Fenbeit  Freir,  137,  141 

Bansley,  Charles,  177 

Barclay,  Alexander,  5,  178,  180,  222, 
225;  The  Ship  of  Fools,  155-64; 
Eclogues,  164-6;  idea  of  satire, 
156;  characterization,  159  ;  satiric 
methods,  isgf. ;  remedy  for  fol- 
lies, i6of. ;  pictures  of  real  life, 
i6if. ;  lack  of  poetry,  162;  in- 
fluence of  classical  satire  upon, 
i62f. ;  medieval  ethics,  163;  in- 
dividualizing tendency,  i63f. ;  his 
English  heritage,  164;  subsequent 
influence,  164;  his  court-satire, 
165  ;  literary  satire,  165  ;  Mantuan 
and  Aeneas  Silvius,  i6sf. ;  in- 
fluence of  Eclogues,  1 66 

Barlow,  Jerome,   185 

Bartholomew  Fair,  220 

Batrachomyomachia,  The,  20,  23, 
25,  26 

Battle  of  Lewes,  The,  50 

Beast-Lpic,  The,  7  ;  as  parody,  26f. 

Beast-Fable,  The,  27f.,  109 

Bede,  Vision  of  Furseus  and  Vision 
of  Drihthelm,  53 

Beggars  and  Idlers,  satire  against, 
73,  i8of. 

Bel  Acueil,  in  Roman  de  la  Rose, 
104 

Bembo,  epigrams,  17 

Benedictines,  the,  39 

Beranger,  songs,  7,  37 


235 


236 


Bernard  de  Rovenac,  sirventes 
against  Henry  III,  49 

Berni,  8,  20  n.,  30 

Bertrand  de  Born,  sirventes,  37 

Bertrand  de  Born,  the  younger,  sir- 
vente,  48 

Bishop  Golias,   i,  38 

Bishops  of  Bath,  Norwich,  Win- 
chester, Rochester,  and  Ely,  satire 
against,  48 

B tickling  Homilies,  35 

Boccaccio,    106,    109 

Boccalini,   33 

Boileau,  5,  6,  16;  Satires,  7;  Le 
Lutrin,  22 

Boothe,  William,  bishop  of  "  Ches- 
ter," satire  against,  128,  129 

Bouge  of  Court,  The,  144,  145,  213, 
219;  as  court-satire,  146;  analy- 
sis of,  i46f ;  origin  of  name, 
146  n. 

Brandt,  Sebastian,  119,  147  n.,  155, 
158 

Buchanan,  George,  epigrams,  17; 
as  satirist  of  the  Reformation, 
32  n. 

Burchiello,   Domenico,   20  n. 

Burgundy,  Duke  of,  defection,  124; 
satire  against,  125 

Burlesque,  as  a  prose  genre,  7;  as 
a  poetic  genre,  7 ;  as  a  satiric 
method,  i8f. ;  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
2$f. ;  Goliardic  burlesque,  4of. ; 
in  Speculum  Stultorum,  45 ;  in 
Satire  on  the  Men  of  Stockton, 
83  ;  in  Council  of  London,  88 ;  in 
ballads  on  siege  of  Calais,  125 ; 
in  parody  of  the  Mass,  129;  in 
Chaucer,  98-117,  passim;  in  Dun- 
bar,  136-43,  passim;  in  Cock 
Lorell,  i7gf. ;  in  Heywood,  2i3f. ; 
in  New  Custom,  218 

Butler,  Samuel,  i,  5,  7,  14;  Hudi- 
bras,  3,  18,  22,  23,  28 

Byron,  George  Gordon,  i,  4,  8,  14; 
Don  Juan,  7,  23,  28 ;  burlesque 
poetry,  18;  Vision  of  Judgment, 
22 ;  English  Bards  and  Scotch 
Reviewers,  33 


Calais,  siege  of,  satiric  ballads,   125 
Cambridge,    Richard    Owen,    Scrib- 

bleriad,  22 
Candide,  7 
Canning,   George,   i  ;   Knife-Grinder, 

21 
Canon's  Yeoman's  Tale,  The,  analy- 

sis   Of,    II2f. 

Canterbury  Tales,  The,  98,  99,  100; 
satire  in  General  Prologue,  100- 
103  ;  The  Pardoner's  Tale  and 
prologue,  io3f.  ;  prologue  to  Wife 
of  Bath's  Tale,  io4f.  ;  envoy  to 
Clerk's  Tale,  105;  interlude  be- 
fore Monk's  Tale,  105;  Mer- 
chant's Tale,  109  ;  Nun's  Priest's 
Tale,  i09f.  ;  Friar's  Tale,  in  ; 
Summoner's  Tale,  inf.;  Canon's 
Yeoman's  Tale,  ii2f.  ;  Sir  Thopas, 


Caporali,   Cesare,  33 

Caricature,   18 

Castle  of  Perseverance,  The,  216 

Catullus,   epigrams,    17 

Cervantes,  7,  14;  Don  Quixote,  7; 
Viaje  al  Parnaso,  33 

Champion  des  Dames,  72 

"Character"  writers,   163 

Chansons  des  Gestes,  parodies  of, 
25f. 

Chaucer,  Geoffrey,  i,  5,  162,  207, 
213,  216,  221,  225;  Friar's  Tale, 
7  ;  Sir  Thopas,  26  ;  Nun's  Priest's 
Tale,  27  n.  ;  House  of  Fame,  28  ; 
influence  of  Jean  de  Meung,  72  ; 
his  satiric  poetry,  98-117  ;  general 
character  of  his  satire,  98  ;  point 
of  view,  99  ;  his  satiric  methods, 
100;  indebtedness  to  fabliau,  107; 
his  fabliaux,  109-12  ;  his  place  in 
the  history  of  English  satire,  117; 
influence  upon  immediate  succes- 
sors, 118 

Churchill,  Charles,  i,  6,  10 

Cistercians,   the,   39 

Classes,  Social,  satire  against,  74, 
84,  94  ;  on  classes  represented  by 
individuals,  100-17,  *66,  179;  rise 
of  "  Class  satire,"  66f. 

Classical  Latin  Satire,  The,  3,  ion.  ; 


237 


evolution  of,  15 ;  description  of, 
i5f. ;  burlesque  element,  23  ;  moral 
and  social  elements,  33 
r  Clergy,  the,  satire  against,  4of.,  44f., 
46,  58,  59,  6sf.,  74f-,  81,  84,  94, 
100,  in,  132,  142,  1511.,  172, 
i8gf.,  191,  192,  201,  202,  205,  206, 
208,  213,  219. 

Clerk's   Tale,   The,   envoy  to,    105 

Cleveland,  John,  i,  4,  5 

Cochlaeus,    i88f. 

Cock  Lorell's  Bote,  101,  163,  213, 
216;  analysis  of,  i78f. 

Cognizances  of  the  Nobles,  in  Rich- 
ard the  Redeless,  95,  96 ;  reasons 
for  use  in  satire,  126,  127;  in 
Wars  of  the  Roses,  130 

Colyn  Clout e,  by  Skelton,  145  ;  analy- 
sis of,  isof. 

Complaint  of  the  Plowman,  The, 
analysis  of,  89f. 

Complaynt  of  Bagsche  the  Kingis 
auld  Hound,  The,  203 

Complaynt  of  Schir  David  Lyndesay 
to  the  Kingis  Grace,  The,  201 

Confessio  Amantis,  satire  in  pro- 
logue, 94 

Confession  of  Golias,   The,  4of. 

Conquest,  the,  effect  on  English  sa- 
tire, 36 

Consistory  Courts,  satire  against, 
S6f.,  75,  135,  203,  207 

Copland,   Robert,    180 

Coppeta,  Francesco,  burlesque  son- 
nets, 20 

Council  of  London,  the,  trial  of 
Wyckliffe,  87 

Council  of  London,  The,  Satire,  83  ; 
analysis  of,  87f. 

"  Court-satire,"  in  Dunbar,  139  ;  in 
Skelton,  146-8  ;  in  Barclay,  165  ; 
in  Lyndsay,  202,  203 

Cowper,  William,  i 

Cratinus,   24 

Cromwell,  Thomas,  172;  satire 
against,  173,  223 

Cytezen  and  Uplondyshman,  The, 
analysis  of,  166 

Dame  Sirith,   108,  109 


Dance  of  the  Sevin  Deidly  Synnis, 
The,  141 

Dante,    114 

"  Daw  Topias,"  possible  author  of 
anti-Lollard  Satire,  91 

De  Casibus  Virorum  Illustrium,  106 

De  Conjuge  non  Ducenda,  41,  122, 
175,  176 

De  Cruce  Denarii,  41 

Defence  of  Women,  The,  1 76  n. 

DeFoe,  Daniel,  lampoons,  7 ;  satiric 
pamphlet,  i4n. 

De  Mundi  Miseria,  41 

De  Nummo,  41,  42 

Deslongchamps,   27 

Dialogue,  the  satiric,  7,   13 

Dialogue,   The,   Occleve's,   176 

Dialogue  between  the  Body  and  the 
Soul,  53 

Disobedient  Child,   The,   219 

Divine  Comedy,  The,  as  a  vision  of 
Heaven  and  Hell,  53  ;  relation  to 
The  House  of  Fame,  114 

Dit  d'Aventure,  25 f. 

Doctor,  the,  as  a  satiric  type,   iO2f. 

Doctor  Double  Ale,   igif. 

Don  Juan,  by  Byron,  7,  23,  28 

Don  Quixote,  5,  7 

Donne,  John,   i,  16 

Dreme,  The,  200 

Drunkenness,  satire  against,  77,  192, 
219 

Dryden,  John,  i,  2,  5,  6,  13,  36, 
227;  Mac  Flecknoe,  n,  14,  33; 
burlesque  poetry,  18 ;  Absalom 
and  Achitophel,  32 

Dunbar,  William,  57,  134,  155,  177, 
197,  198,  222,  225  ;  satiric  poetry, 
136-43;  character  and  times,  136; 
nature  and  genesis  of  his  satire, 
1361. ;  range  of  his  satire,  137; 
humor,  138 ;  form  of  his  satiric 
poems,  138;  sum  of  characteris- 
tics as  satirist,  143 

Dunciad,  The,  20,  22,   31,  33 

Eclogue,  the  satiric,  of  Barclay, 
Googe,  Spenser,  and  Gay,  4 ;  Bar- 
clay's, 164-6 


238 


Edward  I,  King,  satire  in  reign  of, 

56-63 
Edward  II,  King,  satire  in  reign  of, 

63-8  ;   satire  against,   6ji. 
Edward  III,    King,    satire    in    reign 

of,   68-79  ;   satire  against,   70 
Edward  IV,    King,    satire    in    reign 

of,   1321. 
Edward  VI,    King,    satire    in    reign 

of,  173-77,  194-6;  economic  trou- 

bles,    1  73  ;    growth    of    Reforma- 

tion, iQ4f.  ;    Protestantism  at  court, 


Elegy,  the,   i 

Elegy  on  a  Lap-Dog,  21 

Eleven  Pains  of  Hell,  The,  analysis 

of,  54-5 
Endightment  against  Mother  Masse, 

The,  219 
English  Bards  and  Scotch  Review- 

ers, 33 

Epicharmus,  23 
Epigram,    the,    7  ;    Elizabethan    and 

Augustan,   4  ;   relation   to  the   Sa- 

tire,    i7f.  ;     Greek    epigram,     17; 

Martialian,    17;    place    in    history 

of  the  English  Satire,   i7f. 
Erasmus,  6,   10,   14,   144;   Praise  of 

Folly,  7 

Essay,  the  satiric,  7 
Eubeus  of  Paros,  23 
Everyman,  216 
Exhortation  to  the  Nobles  and  Com- 

mons of  the  North,  An,  173 

Fable,  the  satiric,  4,  7  ;  of  Marie 
de  France,  7;  of  Gay  and  Prior, 
7  ;  of  LaFontaine,  7  ;  Beast- 
Fable,  271. 

Fabliau,  the,  5,  7  ;  influence  upon 
Chaucer,  107  ;  in  France,  107,  108  ; 
not  primarily  satirical,  108;  in 
England,  108,  109;  various  fab- 
liaux, 108-12;  in  dramatic  form, 
213 

Fabliaux  di   Cognaigne,   li,   55,   s8f. 

Farce,  the  French,  7 

Fashions,  satire  on,  56,  170,  171, 
203,  217 

Fastnachtspiel,  the,    7  n. 


Fescennine  Verses,   12 

Fischart,    14,    18 

Fischer,  27 

Flemings,  the,  satire  against,   125 

Flyting  of  Dunbar  and  Kennedie, 
The,  141 

"Fool  Satires,"  46,  1191.,  155-64, 
211,  218,  225 

Folengo,  Teofilo,  Orlandino  and 
Maccaronea,  18,  20 

Four  Elements,  The,  219 

Four  P's,  The,  101,  213 

Fox  and  the  Wolf,  The,  27x1,  109 

Franc,  *Martin,   72 

France,  satire  against,  69 

Franco,  Matteo,  20  n. 

Fraser,   Sir  Simon,  61 

Fraud,  satire  against,  59,  121,  139 

Friar,  the,   as   a  satiric  type,    101 

Friar's    Tale,    The,    7 ;    analysis    of, 

in 

^Friars,  the,  as  objects  of  satire,  44f., 
65,  75,  81,  87,  88,  101,  in,  132, 
142,  189,  201,  205,  208;  minis- 
terial work,  52 ;  spiritual  degen- 
eration, 57,  59 

Frogs,  The,  24 

Froschmeuseler,  the,  26 

Gargantua,  7 

Gautier  of   Sens,   38  n. 

Gaveston,  Piers,  satire  against,  67f. 

Gay,  John,  satiric  fables,  4 ;  paro- 
dies, 2of. 

Geburt  Jesu,  175 

"  General  Satire  on  all  Classes  of 
Society,  A,"  42 

Gifford,  William,  i,  5,  n,  16;  Sa- 
tires, 3 

Godfrey  of  Winchester,  epigrams, 
17  and  n. 

Godly  Queen  Hester,  218 

God's  Promises,  214 

Goethe,  Reineke  Fuchs,  27 

Golden  Targe,  The,  136 

Goldsmith,    Oliver,    33  n. 

Goliardic  satire,  5 ;  origin,  nature, 
and  history,  37f. ;  examples,  4of, 
471.,  50,  67 


239 


Goliards,  the,  poetry,   36,  213,  221  ; 

origin,   37 
Gongora,   20  n. 

Googe,    Barnaby,    eclogues,    166 
Gower,  John,  47,  98,   100,   144,   182, 
197,    221,    223;     Vox    Clamantis, 
83-5 ;     Tripartite    Chronicle,    85  ; 
On   the  Reign   of  Rich.  II,  93f. ; 
The   Search  for  Light,   94 ;    pro- 
logue to  Confessio  Amantis,  94 
Grotesque,  the,  in  satire,   18 
Guillaume  de  Digulleville,  Le  Pele- 
rinage    de    la    Vie    Humaine    and 
Pelerinage  de  I'Ame,  53 

Hall,  Joseph,   i,  16 

Handlyng  Synne,  analysis  of,  62f. 

Hegemo  Thasius,  23 

Henry    III,    sirventes    against,    49 ; 

satire  in  reign  of,  49-56 
Henry  IV,  King,  satire  in  reign  of, 

85,    118-24;    conspiracies    against, 

123  ;   no  satire  against,   123!". 
Henry  V,  King,   satire  in  reign   of, 

124-6;   no   satire   against,    124 
Henry  VI,  King,  satire  in  reign  of, 

126-32 ;   political  events   in   reign 

Of,     I26f. 

Henry  VIII,  King,  satire  in  reign 
of,  168-73,  177-94  ;  social  changes, 
i68f. ;  dissolution  of  monasteries, 
172;  "The  Pilgrimage  of  Grace," 
172;  vagabondage,  i77f. ;  the  Re- 
formation and  religious  parties, 

X   i8if. ;    translation    of    the    Bible, 

l82f. 

Henry  of  Huntingdon,  epigrams,   17 

and  n. 

Henryson,  Robert,  fables,  27,   134-6- 
Heywood,  John,  216;   epigrams,  17; 

Interludes,   101,   204,   212,   213 
Hick  S corner,  217 
Hipponax,  23 
Homer,  6,  n 
Horace,  6,  8,   n,  14,  15,  23,  32,  33, 

98,  99,  227 ;   Satires,  7  ;   "  Appian 

bore,"  23 
House     of    Fame,     The,     28,     103 ; 

analysis    of,     114-6;    relation    to 


The  Divine   Comedy,    114;   satire 

in,    116;   personal   element,    116 
How  Dunbar  was  desyrd  to  be  one 

Freir,   137,    138;   analysis   of,    142 
How  myschaunce    regneth    in   Inge- 

lond,  132 
How  the  Plowman  learned  his  Pater 

Noster,    80  n. 

Hudibras,  3,  7,   18,  22,  23,  28 
Hunt,  Leigh,  33 
Hutten,  Ulrich  von,  6  ;  dialogues,  7, 

14;    use    of   travesty,    20;    Phala- 

rismus,  31 
Hwon   holy   chireche  is  vnder  uote, 

53 
Hye  Way  to  the  Spyttel  Hous,  The, 

analysis  of,  i8of. 

Image   of  Hypocrisy,    The,   analysis 

Of,     I92f. 

In  Vice  most  vicius  he  excellis,  141 

Innocent  III,  pope,  47 

Interlude   of    Youth,    The,   211,    219 

Interludes,  satire  in,  211;  confusion 
with  Moralities,  211  ;  pictures  of 
"low  life,"  211  ;  Heywood's, 
2i3f. ;  other  Interludes,  216-19, 
passim 

"It  may  wele  ryme,  etc.,"  119 

Jack  Cade's  Rebellion,  130 

Jack  Juggler,   218 

Jack  Upland,    origin,    90 ;    analysis 

of,  gof. 
Jean  de  Meung,  satire  in  Roman  de 

la     Rose,     7  if.;     influence     upon 

Langland,  71  f. ;  upon  Chaucer,  72  ; 

upon   Satire  on   Woman,   175 
Jeste  des  Dames,  La,  175 
John,    King,    47 ;    sirventes    against, 

48f. 

John  Baptyste,  214 
John  Bon  and  Mast  Person,   193 
John  de    Wethamstede,    130 
John  of  Bridlington,  70 
John  of  Gaunt,   85 
"John     the     Common     Weal,"     in 

Lyndsay's    satire,    201,    204,    207, 

215,   224 
Jonson,   Ben,   7,   112 


240 


Judges,    satire    against,    56,    75 
Juvenal,    5,    6,    8,    9,    ion.,    15,    24, 
33,   176,  227;   Satires,   7,  23 

King,    William,   21  n. 
King  Darius,  211,  219 
King  Henry  VI,  127 
Kirchmeyer,  215 
Kittei's   Confessioun,  203 
Knife-Grinder,   The,  21 
Krankheit   der  Messe,    186  n. 
Kyng  Johan,  212,  214-6 

LaFontaine,  5,  27,  136 

La  Secchia  Rapita,  7,  20 

Lampoon,  the  7 

Land  of  Cokaygne,  The,  39,  55,  58 

Langland,    William,    i,    5,    98,    100, 

148,  180,  181,  186,  205,  216,  224; 

Piers    Plowman,     70-9 ;     Richard 

the  Redeless,  95  f. 
Langton,  Stephen,  47,  215 
Lapps    and    Greenlanders,    primitive 

satire  among,   30  n. 
Latin   Poems   Commonly   Attributed 

to  Walter  Mapes,  38 
Le  Lutrin,  7,  22 
Lenvoy  a  Bukton,  n6f. 
Lenvoy  de  Chaucer  a  Scogan,  116 
Lessing,    fables,    27 
Letter  of  Cupid,  The,  176 
Literary   Satire,  The,  33 
Little  John  Nobody,   196 
Lollards,  the,  satire  for  and  against, 

85-92 ;  persecution  of,  90 
London      Lickpenny,      analysis      of, 

i2if. ;  authorship,  121  n. 
"  Low    Life,"    satire    on,    148,    149, 

179,  212,  217 
Lowell,  J.  R.,  4;  Fable  for  Critics, 

33 

Lucian,    6,    14;    dialogues,    7;    epi- 
grams,  17;   use  of  travesty,   19 
Lucilius,  Latin  satirist,  15,  23 
Lucilius,  Greek    epigrammatist,    17 
Lusty  Juventus,  212,  216 
Lutel  Soth  sermun,  A,  5 if.,  55 
Luther,  32  n.,   151,   185,  207;  satire 

against,   194,  205  n. 
Lydgate,    John,    46,    158,    159,    164, 


170,  182,  189;  satirical  poems, 
119-21 

Lyndsay,  Sir  David,  i,  5,  32  n.,  101, 
134,  135,  136,  137,  167,  183,  213, 
216,  217,  221,  222,  223,  224,  225  ; 
life  of,  i97f. ;  as  man  and  as  poet, 
ig8f. ;  genesis  of  satiric  poems, 
199 ;  range  of  material,  199 ;  as 
satirist  of  the  Reformation,  200 ; 
satiric  poems,  200-10 ;  immunity 
from  persecution,  209 ;  contribu- 
tion to  the  Satire,  210  ;  influence 
upon  Bale,  215 

Lyric,  the,   i 


Maccaronea,  18 

Mac  Flecknoe,  n,  14,  22,  23,  31,  33 

Magna    Charta,    67 

Magnyfycence,   2i2f.,   219 

Manciple,  the,  as  a  satiric  type,  102 

Mankind,  216 

Manner  of  the  World  Nowadays, 
The,  170 

Mantuan,  eclogues,   i64f. 

Manuel,    i86n. 

Manuel  des  Peschiez,  63 

Map,  Walter,  i,  4,  37,  38,  47,  151, 
181,  189,  222;  Goliardic  poems 
sometimes  attributed  to  him,  4of. 

Margites,  23,  25 

Marie  de  France,  fables,  7,  26,  27, 
136 

Martial,  epigrams,  7,  17 

Mass,  the,  satire  against,  185-90, 
193,  219 

Menander,   25 

Merchant's  Tale,  The,  109 

Merry  Play  between  John  the  Hus- 
band, Tyb  the  Wife,  and  Sir  John 
the  Priest,  A,  213 

Miller,  the,  as  a  satiric  type,   102 

Mind,  Will,  and  Understanding,  216 

Minnesingers,  the,  satire,  37n. ;  love 
poetry,  175 

Minot,  Lawrence,  63,  125;  songs, 
68f. 

Miracle  Plays,  satire  in,  212 

Miseriae  Curialium,  165 

Mock- Epic,  the,  2if. 


241 


Mock-Heroic,  the,  4,   7,   18,  2 if.,  2  a 
Moliere,  satiric  comedies,  7,  24 
Monarchic,  The,  200,  203 
Monk,  the,  as  a  satiric  type,  100 
Monks,  the,  satire  against,  40,  43f., 
46,    58,    59,    65,    81,   87,    100,    189, 
191 

Monk's  Tale,  The,  106,  107;  inter- 
lude before,  105 ;  interlude  fol- 
lowing, 106-7 

Moralities,  satire,  211  ;  confusion 
with  Interludes,  211  ;  low  life, 
211  ;  various  Moralities,  216-9, 
passim 

More,  Edward,   1 76  n. 
More,  Sir    Thomas,    144 ;    epigrams, 

17 

Morgante  Maggiore,  7,   18 
Mother  Hubberd's  Tale,  27 
Murner,   32  n. 

Narenschiff,    the,    119,    147  n.,    155; 

relation    to    The    Ship    of    Fools, 

156 

Nature,  217 

Neckham,  Alexander,  46,  85 
New  Custom,  218 
Nice  Wanton,  The,  216 
Novel,  the  satiric  novel,   7 
Nowadays,    analysis    of,    1691. 
Nun's    Priest's     Tale,     The,     27  n. ; 

analysis  of,  iogf. 

Occleve,  Thomas,  poem  on  Old- 
castle,  91  f. ;  appeal  to  Henry  V, 
122;  ballade  on  interment  of  Rich. 
II,  122 ;  The  Letter  of  Cupid, 
176  ;  Dialogue,  176 

Ode,  the,  i 

Of  Men  Lif  that  wonip  in  Lond,  59 

Old  English  Miscellany,  An,   54 

Oldcastle,   Sir  John,  91,   124,   191 

Oldham,  John,   10 

On  the  Council  of  London,  19  n. 

Order  of  Fair  Ease,  The,  39 

"  Order  of  Fair  Ease,   The,"  58 

"  Order  of  the  Ass,  The,"  45  n.,  84 

Orlandino,   18 

Owl   and    the   Nightingale,   The,    57 

Ovid,  85 


I  Pain  and  Sorrow  of  Evil  Marriage, 
The,  176 

Pammachius,  215 

Pantcha-Tantra,  the,  27 

Papal  Court,  satire  against,  471.,  203 

Pardoner,  the,  as  a  satiric  type,  101, 
io3f.,  179,  207,  213,  216 

Pardoner  and  the  Friar,  The,  101, 
213 

Pardoner's  Tale,  The,  analysis  of, 
103! 

"  Parnassian  poems,"  4,  33 

Parody,  as  a  satiric  method,  20 ; 
Goliardic  parodies,  Ch.  n,  passim 

Persius,   15 

Personal  Satire,  The,  3of. 

Personal  satire,  against  King  John, 
48f.;  anti-Wyckliffite  clergy,  88; 
Oldcastle,  9 if.;  King  Rich.  II, 
95 f. ;  Bushey,  Scrope,  Greene, 
Bagot,  Ver,  951. ;  House  of  Lan- 
caster, 123;  Duke  of  Burgundy, 
125;  Say  and  Daniel,  i27f. ;  Suf- 
folk, 127-30;  Boothe,  128;  Don- 
ald Owre,  141  ;  Friar  Damian, 
141  ;  Wolsey,  150-55,  passim, 
185-90,  passim;  Thomas  Crom- 
well, 173 ;  Father  Mathias,  etc., 
188  ;  Luther,  194;  the  Pope,  195, 
214. 

Petrarch,   20 

Phaedrus,  27 

Pierce  the  Plowman's  Crede,  89, 
90 ;  analysis  of,  8of. 

Piers  Plowman,  i,  28,  94,  148,  182, 
211,  218,  226;  analysis  of,  70-9; 
authorship,  70  n. ;  influence  of 
Roman  de  la  Rose,  71  ;  allegorical 
form,  72 ;  personifications,  73 ; 
satire  against  idlers,  social  classes, 
74 ;  civil  and  ecclesiastical  courts, 
75  ;  clergy,  75  ;  constructive  ele- 
ment, 76 ;  genre  pictures,  761. ; 
contemporary  allusions,  77 ;  hu- 
mor, 78 ;  place  in  history  of  Eng- 
lish Satire,  79  ;  influence,  80  ;  imi- 
tations of,  8of. 

"  Pilgrimage  of  Grace,  The,"  nature 
and  causes,  172;  in  satire,  173 

Pilgrimages,     Shrines,     and     Image 


242 


Worship,  satire  against,  77f.,  203 

Pitt,  Christopher,  21  n. 

Peasants'  Revolt,  the,  causes,  81, 
82 ;  in  satire,  &3f. 

Play,  the  satiric,  7,  13 

Plowman,  the,  as  a  type,  75,  8if. 

Poem  on  the  Times  of  Edward  II ' , 
A,  169,  224,  226;  analysis  of,  64-6 

Poema  Morale,  53 

Political  Satire,  the,  in  general,  3  if.; 
in  medieval  England,  222 f. 

Poor,  the,  satire  on  oppression  of, 
65,  i35f.,  170,  174,  188,  2o6f., 
208 

Poor  Help,  A,  194 

Pope,  Alexander,  i,  6,  7,  n,  14, 
1 6,  32,  36,  98,  225,  227;  epigrams, 
17;  burlesque  poetry,  18;  Dun- 
dad,  20,  22,  31,  33;  Satires,  7,  n 

Praise  of  Folly,  The,  7,  13 

Pricke  of  Conscience,  The,  62 ; 
analysis  of,  63 

Prior,  Matthew,  satiric  fables,  4 

Proper  Dialogue  Between  a  Gen- 
tleman and  a  Husbandman,  A, 
191 

Prophecy  of  Golias,   The,   41 

Prophecy  of  John  of  Bridlington, 
6gf. 

Proud  Wives  Pater  Noster,  The, 
analysis  of,  i76f. 

Pulci,  Morgante  Maggiore,  7,   18 

Quatern  of  Knaves,  181  and  n. 

Rabelais,  6,  14,  1 8,  210  ;    Gargantua,  7 

Ragguagli  di  Parnaso,  33 

Ragman  Roll,   122,   175 

Raoul  de  Houdin,  Songe  d'Enfer  and 
la  Voie  de  Paradis,  53 

Rape  of  the  Lock,  The,  22 

Rede  Me  and  Be  Nott  Wrothe,  185- 
90,  191  ;  authorship,  185  ;  genesis, 
185  ;  confiscation  by  Wolsey,  186; 
relation  to  Krankheit  der  Messe, 
i86n. ;  form,  187;  subject-matter, 
187;  personal  satire,  188;  tone, 
190;  verse-form,  190 

Reformation,  Satire  of  the,  181-96, 
200,  205-9,  214-6,  21 7f.,  219 


Religious    Satire,    The,    22if. 
Renart  le  Contrefait,  26 
Replycacion,  The,  iS^f.,  192 
Respublica,  211,  212,  2i7f. 
Retaliation,  The,  33  n. 
Reve,  the,  as  a  satiric  type,   102 
Richard  II,  King,  85  ;  satire  against, 

9$f.  ;    satire    in    reign    of,    80-117 
Richard    of    Cornwall,    Earl,    ballad 

against,   5  of. 
Richard  of  Cormvall,  English  ballad, 

51,  226 
Richard    the    Redeless,    analysis    of, 

9$f.  ;    authorship,    95  n. 
Richert,   French  fabliau,   107 
Robene  and  Makyne,   134 
Robert   Mannyng,   Handlyng  Synne, 

62f. 

Robin  Conscience,  219 

Rogues,  satire  on,  178-81,  211,  217, 

225 

Rollenhagen,  26 
Roman  de  la  Rose,   the,   5,   28,    46, 

104,    i46n.,   175 
Roman  de  Renart,  7  ;  cycle  of,  2j>f.  ; 

as   source  of  material,    109 
Roman  de  Rou,  82  n. 
Romance,    metrical,    parody    of,    25, 


Roy,   William,    185 

Ruin  of  a  Realm,  171  f. 

Rutebeuf,   210 

Saint  Patrick's  Purgatory,   54 

Satire,  the,  i  ;  gradual  development, 
2  ;  confusion  of  terms,  2  ;  satire, 
Satire,  and  the  satiric  spirit,  3  ; 
classical  Latin  Satire,  3  ;  Anglo- 
Latin  Satires,  4,  5  ;  the  Lollard 
Satire,  4  ;  allegorical  Satire,  4  ; 
Satire  on  Woman,  4  ;  Satire  of 
the  Reformation,  4  ;  on  Rogues,  4  ; 
"  Parnassian  "  Satire,  4  ;  rise  and 
progress  in  England,  4f.  ;  foreign 
influences,  5  ;  perennial  life,  12  ; 
the  Satire  in  prose,  13  ;  methods  of 
expression,  14  ;  the  grotesque  and 
the  burlesque  Satire,  i8f.  ;  dis- 
tinction between  Satire  and  other 
genres,  2gf.  ;  division  into  groups, 


243 


3of. ;  the  Personal  Satire,  3of. ; 
Greek  lyric  Satires,  30 ;  the  Polit- 
ical Satire,  31  ;  the  Moral  and 
Social  Satire,  32 ;  the  Literary 
Satire,  33 

Satire,  definition,  3 ;  Goliardic,  4 ; 
Trouvere,  4,  36 ;  Civil  War,  5 ; 
grotesque  and  burlesque,  i8f. ; 
Greek,  23  f. ;  among  Lapps  and 
Greenlanders,  30  n. ;  in  Anglo- 
Saxon  literature,  35  ;  schools,  36  ; 
in  sermons,  S2f. ;  in  Visions  of 
Heaven  and  Hell,  53f. ;  lack  of 
political  satire  in  reign  of  Ed. 
II,  64f. ;  rise  of  class-satire,  66f. ; 
in  fabliaux,  107 i. 

Satire,  objects  of:  alchemy,  q.  v. ; 
astrologers,  162;  beggars  and 
idlers,  q.  v. ;  bishops,  48,  172; 
celibacy,  105;  chivalry,  140;  so- 
cial classes,  q.  v. ;  clergy,  q.  v. ; 
consistory  courts,  q.  v.  ;  courts, 
q.  v. ;  drunkenness,  q.  v. ;  fame, 
116;  fashions,  q.  v. ;  fortune,  116; 
France,  69 ;  fraud,  q.  v. ;  incon- 
sistency, 119;  judges,  q.  v. ;  Lol- 
lards, q.  v. ;  low  life,  q.  v. ;  mar- 
riage, n6f. ;  Mass,  q.  v. ;  metrical 
romance,  i  i3f. ;  money,  41  f. ;  papal 
court,  47f.,  203 ;  peddlers,  203 ; 
persons,  see  "  personal  satire ;  " 
pilgrimages,  etc.,  q.  v. ;  politics  in 
Scotland,  140;  oppression  of  the 
poor,  q.  v. ;  public  manners,  i32f. ; 
Reformation,  q.  v. ;  rogues,  q.  v. ; 
rumor,  116;  scholasticism,  62; 
Scotch,  q.  v. ;  Seven  Deadly  Sins, 
q.  v.;  sins  of  the  city,  166;  so- 
cial parasites,  42  ;  society  in  gen- 
eral, 42  ;  tailors,  q.  v. ;  the  times, 
q.  v.;  vices  in  abstract,  94,  132; 
woman,  q.  v. 

Satire  on  Edinburgh,  140 

Satire  on  the  Men  of  Stockton,  A, 
83 

Satirical  spirit,  the,  nature  and 
working,  6f. ;  destructive  element, 
8 ;  humorous  element,  9 ;  exag- 
geration, 9  ;  reformatory  purpose, 
10 ;  stimuli,  10;  instruments,  n 


Satirists,  great  English,  i  ;  Eliza- 
bethan, 5;  Restoration  and 
Georgian,  5 

Satyrical  Ballad,  A,  121 

Savary   of   Mauleon,   48 

Scaliger,  J.  J.,  epigrams,   17 

Scarron,  Virgile  Travesti,  7,  19 

School-House  of  Women,  The,  176 

Scotch,  the,   Satire  against,  61,   125 

Scribbleriad,    The,    22 

Scrope,  Richard,  Archbishop  of 
York,  123 

Sermon  joyeux,  7 

Seven  Deadly  Sins,  satire  against, 
94,  171,  224 

Sheffield,  John,  Earl  of,  33 

Shepherd's  Calendar,   The,    166 

Shepherd's  Week,  The,  20 

Ship  of  Fools,  The,  155,  178,  180; 
analysis  of,  156-64;  variations 
from  Narrenschiff,  156;  moral 
character,  157;  literary  character, 
J57;  popularity,  157;  pictures, 
158;  form,  158;  classes  of  Fools, 
characterization,  159;  satire 
against  classes  and  religious  sa- 
tire, 1 60 ;  constructive  element, 
161  ;  bookish  origin,  161  ;  pictures 
of  real  life,  i6if. ;  poetic  quality, 
162;  influence  of  classical  satire, 
i62f. ;  medieval  ethics,  163;  Eng- 
lish elements,  164;  subsequent  in- 
fluence, 164 

Showing    and   Declaring    the    Pride< 
and  Abuse  of  Women  Notvadays, 
177 
Silli,  the  24,  25 

Simon  de  Montfort,  Earl,  50 
Simonides  of  Amorgos,  23 
Sir  Thopas,  26,  98,  113 
Sirvente,  4  and  n.,  5,  36,  37  and  n., 

48f.,  222 

Skelton,  John,  i,  4,  5,  46,  57,  134, 
162,  170,  173,  182,  192,  193,  i94> 

197,   2O2,   205,    210,    211,   2I2f.,    2l6, 

219,  221,  222,  223,  225 ;  Satires 
against  Wolsey,  3  in.;  Satires, 
1 43-5 5  ;  use  of  satire,  144  ;  life, 
i44f. ;  meter,  145  ;  heritage,  i45f. ; 
attitude  toward  Wolsey,  150;  sub- 


244 


ject-matter,  151  ;  qualities  as  sa- 
tirist, i54f. ;  Replication,  i84f.  ; 
Magnyfycence,  212 

"  Social   Parasites,   The,"   42 

Society,  generalized  Satire  against, 
42 

Song  against  the  Friars,  88f. 

Songe  d'Enfer,  53 

Songs,  against  French  and  Scotch, 
4;  of  Beranger,  7 

Sottie,  the,  7 

Speculum  Stultorum,  20  n.,  28,  43- 
6,  58,  72 

Speke  Parrot,   149!.,   171,   202 

Spenser,  Edmund,  27,   166 

Suckling,  Sir  John,  4,  33 

Suffolk,  William  de  la  Pole,  Duke 
of,  126-9,  passim 

bummoner,    the,    as    a    satiric    type, 

I0lf.,    Ill 

Summoner's    Tale,    The,    inf. 
Supplicatioun    in    Contemptioun    of 

Syde   Taillis,  203 
Swift,  Jonathan,   i,  6,  8,  9,   10,   n, 

14,  1 8,  31,  33  ;  Gulliver's  Travels, 

7;  grotesque  satire,  18 
Syr  Peny,   122 

Taill   of   the  Dog,   the  Scheip,   and 

the   Wolf,   135 
Taill  of  the  Wolf    and    the    Lamb, 

The,  135 

Tailors,  satire  against,  55,  140 
Tale,   the  satiric,   7,   13 
Tale  of  Threscore  Folys  and  Thre, 

A,   analysis  of,   ngf. 
Tassoni,  7,  20 

TelSouris  and  Sowtaris,  The,  138 
Temptacyon  of  our  Lorde,  The,  214 
"  Testament,"     the,     as     a     literary 

form,  202 
Testament    and    Complaynt    of    our 

Soverane    Lordis    Papyngo,    The, 

analysis   of,   2O2f. 
Testament  of  Cresseid,  The,  134 
Theophrastus,   162 
Thistle  and  the  Rose,   The,   136 
Three  Laws  of  Nature,  Moses,  and 

Christ,  The,  214 


Tidings  from  the  Session,  137; 
analysis  of,  I38f. 

Times,  the,  generalized  Satire  on, 
93,  120,  132,  i49f. 

Timon   of   Phlius,   24 

Town  Eclogues,  20 

Travesty,    19 

Treatise  of  this  Gallant,  217;  analy- 
sis of,  i7of;  relation  to  Speke 
Parrot,  171 

Tripartite  Chronicle,  analysis  of,  85 

Trivia,  20 

Trouveres,  4,  36,  37,  175 

Tua  Mariit   Wemen  and   the   Wedo 

137,  140,  177 

Tunning  of  Elynour  Rummnyg,  The, 

149,    211,    225 

Turnament,    The,    by    Dunbar,    137, 

138,  140 

Turnament  of  Totenham,  The,  123  n. 
Twenty-Five  Orders  of  Fools,  The, 

181 
Tyndale,  William,  182,  183,  184,  205 

Ulrich  of  Wiirtemberg,  Duke,  31 

Viaggio  in  Parnaso,  33 

Viaje  al  Parnaso,  33 

Virgil,    164 

Virgile  Travesti,  7,   19 

Vision  of  Furseus,   53 

Vision  of  Judgment,  A,  by  Byron,  22 

Vision  of  St.  Paul,   54 

Vision  of  Tundale,    54 

Vision  of  Thurcill,  The,  54 

Visions  of  Heaven  and  Hell,  origin, 
53 ;  in  France,  53f. ;  in  Middle 
Ages,  54 ;  in  England,  54 ;  rela- 
tion to  the  Satire,  55 

Visions  of  the  Monk  of  Evesham,  54 

Vita  de  Mecenate,  33 

Volpone,  220 

Voltaire,   7,   14 

Vox  Clamantis,  analysis  of,  83-5 

Vox  Populi,  Vox  Dei,  22^ ;  analy- 
sis of,  i73f. 

Wace,  82  n. 

Wars  of  the  Roses,  satire,  130-1, 
223  ;  popular  ballads,  131  n. 


245 


We    lordis    hes    chosin    a    chiftane 

mervellus,    i4of. 
Why  Come   Ye  Not  to  Court,   145  ; 

analysis    of,    152-4;    qualities    as 

satire,   154 
Wife  of  Bath,  the,  as  a  satiric  type, 

103,   104,   105 
Wife  of  Bath's  Tale,  The,  prologue 

to,  io4f. 

Winchelsea,  Lady,  33 
Wireker,    Nigellus,    4,    84,    85,    100, 

164,  221  ;  Speculum  Stultorum,  4, 

20  n.,    28,    43—6 
Wither,  George,  33,  84 
Wolsey,   Thomas,    Cardinal,    150-55, 


passim;  172,   173,  184,  i86f.,  202, 

218,  223 
Woman,  satire  on,  41,  104,  105,  no, 

116,  122,  140,  171,  175-7 
World  and  the  Child,  The,  2i8f. 
Wulfstan,    homilies,    35 ;    references 

to  heaven  and  hell,  53 
Wyatt,   Sir  Thomas,   i,   3,  4,   5,    16, 

144,  226,  227 
Wyckliffe,  John,  71,  85-92,  passim; 

151,  185 

Xenophanes  of  Colophon,  24 
Young,  Edward,  i,   16 


246 


VITA 

The  author  of  this  study  was  born  at  Sanford,  Florida, 
November  25,  1876.  From  1894  to  1896  he  was  a  student  at 
Wofford  College,  where  he  received  the  degree  of  A.B.  in 
1896.  From  1900  to  1901  he  studied  at  Columbia  University, 
under  -the  faculty  of  Philosophy,  as  a  candidate  for  the  degree 
of  Master  of  Arts.  This  degree  he  received  in  1901.  From 
1901  to  1903  he  studied  for  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Phi- 
losophy. During  his^fesidence  at  Columbia  University  he  took 
courses  in  English  under  Professor  Price,  Professor  Matthews, 
Professor  Carpenter,  Professor  Trent,  and  Dr.  Krapp;  in 
Comparative  Literature,  under  Professor  Woodberry  and  Dr. 
Spingarn;  and  in  French,  under  Professor  Todd. 


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